A recent Employment Alert issued by Ashurst Australia that questions the suitability of saliva drug testing has caused some concern amongst our clients, however, the alert does not accurately reflect NATA’s position.
The recent decision made by NATA was to withdraw the provision of accreditation to Section 3 of Australian Standard 4760-2006. This follows several evaluations of saliva drug testing devices by NATA, which highlighted a number of significant technical issues needed to be resolved before Section 3 of AS4760:2006 could be granted. Accordingly NATA withdrew the provision of accreditation to Section 3 only.
This decision does not affect the provision of Sections 2, 4 or 5 of AS4760:2006.
There are five Sections to AS4760:2006 :
- Section 1 – Scope of Certification
- Section 2 – Collection, Storage, Handling and Dispatch
- Section 3 – On-Site Initial Testing (Devices)
- Section 4 – Laboratory Testing
- Section 5 – Confirmatory Testing Procedures
It’s worth adding that the device currently used by Integrity Sampling has recently been independently evaluated by Professor Olaf Drummer of Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, who concluded that the Drager Drug Test 5000 complies with the screening requirements of AS4760:2006 (Section 3).
Should you require a copy of this evaluation, please contact your nearest Integrity Sampling branch.
Integrity Sampling have always offered their customers the best drug testing technology available and will continue to work with NATA in an effort to obtain Section 3 accreditation for the Drager Drug Test 5000 device, as soon as possible.
