1) What drugs do you want to test for?
Whilst all illicit drugs can impact on the safety of both the user and those around them in the workplace, some workplaces may only be interested in testing for the presence of certain drugs.
Pacific Data Systems offers a range of drug test kits to test for a single drug, such as cannabis or synthetic cannabis, or for multiple drugs at once.
2) How close do you want to get to the sample?
There's no delicate way to phrase this. Are you OK with handling a urine specimen?
In broad terms, preliminary tests are designed to test either urine or saliva. It is highly recommended that you wear protective clothing when handling both types, however some people may become squeamish about the thought of using a small pipette to transfer a urine sample from a cup to a drug testing panel.
Thankfully there are urine drug test kits available which limit the amount of manual handling needed. The Microscreen urine drug test cup is an all in one device which means that all you need to do is screw on the lid and place the cup on its side to begin the testing process.
3) What time period do you want to test for?
Many of our customers say they don’t care what an employee does in their downtime, but they are concerned about checking whether someone is under the influence whilst on-site.
You can reduce the possibility of picking up drug use that occurs outside of work by understanding how long different drugs stay in the body, and also, how long since they have been taken can a preliminary urine or saliva test detect their presence.
Download the drug testing detection chart from the link below to find out the typical length of time that a drug may be detected from urine and saliva drug tests.
4) Do you want accurate drug test results?
This might sound like a strange point. Of course you want accuracy - there's no point spending money and wasting time on doing testing if it’s not going to pick up on drug use, right?
Well, like all things, there are various levels of quality in drug test kits and cheap often means inaccurate. An inaccurate kit could not only fail to detect if someone is using drugs at work, but it could also falsely detect drugs in the system of an entirely innocent worker, damaging their reputations and causing undue stress.
So how can you know you are using a good quality drug test kit?
Firstly, look for kits that carry Australian certifications. BUT be careful! Some manufacturers have been known to switch to lower quality components after their drug test kit has been passed. These changes may mean that the kit is less effective than the kit that was tested for the certification.
Secondly, you can look for whether the kit has passed FDA requirements in the USA. US manufactured kits, such as the drug kits sold by Pacific Data Systems, consistently use the same materials. This creates consistency between batches and the version that passed the Australian Certification is likely to be the same that is for sale even years after they receive the tick.
And lastly, if you are already using a kit, you can look for how red the indicator line is when you conduct a drug test. Regardless of a negative or positive sample is recorded, a quality drug test kit should produce a cherry red coloured indicator line. If not, the manufacturer probably used lower quality components.A good quality, accurate drug test kit may have a slightly higher purchase price, but the value they deliver in terms of accuracy far outweighs this.
For more information, please contact Pacific Data Systems on 07 3361 2000 or view our range of preliminary drug detection test kits online - http://pacdatasys.com.au/our-products/workplace-traffic-safety/drug-detection.
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