FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Moskal
DATIA Executive Director
800-355-1257
Alexandria, VA, May 19, 2005: Many press reports about this week’s Congressional hearing on products meant to subvert drug tests have focused on products like “The Whizzinator” and “Urine Luck,” and suggested that the topic isn’t to be taken seriously. The Washington Post began the report in its Style section with “Every so often, in the hushed galleries of Congress, history unfolds in a manner that casts the momentous business of Capitol Hill in stark, even humbling relief. Then there are moments spent discussing the Whizzinator.” The piece went on to report that “A small cluster of spectators . . . giggled audibly in the back of the room” after an unintentional double-entendre using the word “flow.”
The New York Times, in an article about uses of such products in sports, makes light of the situation by predicting football commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s response to congressional questioning might be, “My name is Paul Tagliabue, and I do not condone—nor own—the Original Whizzinator.”
The names and appearances of the devices might garner a laugh, but unfortunately the effect of such products is serious. Efforts to cheat drug tests takes on a different perspective when one considers that more than 12 million employees are subject to mandatory drug testing under the Department of Transportation regulations because they are in safety-sensitive positions. These employees include truck drivers, bus drivers, pilots, mass transit operators, railroad engineers, pipeline workers, mariners, and related transportation industry safety-sensitive personnel. While the names of the devices are humorous, not many would find humor in the airline pilot who was under the influence of drugs while flying thanks to the ability to “beat the test” using one of these products.
The testing regulations were instituted following high profile and tragic transportation accidents resulting in the loss of lives, and a Gallup survey shows that 95% of the public thinks it’s a good idea for these workers to be tested.
The availability of products that are specifically manufactured for the purpose of cheating a drug test bears a serious public safety risk and nullifies the benefits of drug testing those in safety sensitive positions. Fourteen states have laws intended to curb the use of such products, but the piecemeal effect simply does not work.
The Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA) supports federal legislation to end the manufacturing, sale, distribution, transportation, and shipping of products meant to thwart a legal and legitimate drug test. Based on testimony at Tuesday’s hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee—where DATIA offered testimony supporting federal legislative initiatives—the committee plans to move forward with such legislation.
“DATIA is putting its full support behind federal legislation that will to ban the interstate sales of products meant to subvert drug tests, and looks forward to working with the Energy and Commerce committee toward that end,” said DATIA Executive Director Melissa Moskal.
DATIA is a 1,300-member national trade association representing the full spectrum of drug and alcohol testing service agents including laboratories, collection sites, C/TPAs, BATs, MROs, SAPs, employers, and testing device manufacturers.
