So you’ve decided to implement drug testing for your Melbourne workplace. Well done, there’s plenty of evidence that conducting drug testing, as part of a drug and alcohol management plan, is a smart thing to do to protect a business from the scourge of drugs. Now the question is, what testing method will you choose? Urine drug testing or saliva testing?
For those who don’t know much about drug testing, let’s summarise both testing methods.
Urine drug testing Melbourne
- Samples for urine drug testing for your Melbourne workplace is pretty easy and probably doesn’t need a detailed description! The person being tested simply needs to provide a urine sample in a jar. Sample collection needs to be conducted in restroom facilities.
- Analysis of the urine sample is done using a test strip or lab reagent, which will indicate via a change of colour if a drug is present. This can be done in the workplace, as long as all equipment and facilities are available.
- If done on-site, results can be obtained reasonably quickly.
Saliva drug testing Melbourne
- Sample collection couldn’t be much easier. The person being tested simply rubs a collection device around the inside of their mouth.
- The collection device is then placed in the testing unit, in Integrity Sampling’s case the widely acclaimed Drager Drug Test 5000. The testing unit will indicate whether drugs are present in the saliva sample.
- Testing can be done virtually anywhere. The bottom of a mine, a paddock on a large farm, the side of a road, an airplane cockpit… As we said, virtually anywhere.
- Results can be obtained in as little as 5 minutes.
So, on the surface, while the sampling and analysis methods are slightly different, urine drug testing and saliva drug testing appear to be very similar. However, Integrity Sampling recommends saliva drug testing for your Melbourne workplace, and here’s why.
Saliva drug testing Melbourne – the advantages
- Conducting urine drug testing is seen as invasive by some people. Saliva testing, however, isn’t invasive and this is a key advantage.
- While the risks are relatively low, people can cheat or tamper with the urine drug testing process. For example, people being tested have been known to use another person’s urine sample rather than their own in an attempt to mask a potentially positive drug test.
- Urine drug testing can detect drugs that have been taken by a person 1 or 2 days earlier, or even longer. The importance of this detection period is that it raises the chances of someone who is fit and safe to work providing a positive result for drugs. Remember, the object of conducting drug testing in your Melbourne workplace is to identify people who are unsafe to be at work, not people who take drugs in their personal time.
- Saliva testing for drugs, on the other hand, has a narrower window of detection. This makes it a truer test of whether someone is fit and safe to be at work.
While these advantages, we believe, make saliva drug testing a better method, Integrity Sampling does conduct urine drug testing as well as saliva testing. While we prefer and recommend saliva testing due to the above points, we’re more than happy to use urine drug testing methods if your Melbourne business prefers.
