Department of Transportation (DOT) Oral Fluid Drug Testing for Regulated Employees Still Delayed

Although the 49 CFR Part 40 Department of Transportation (DOT) rules were changed over nine (9) months ago to allow the use of oral fluid specimens for federal drug testing under the Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs, no oral fluid collections may be conducted as of the publication of this newsletter (March 18, 2024). We realize that everyone in this industry is anxiously awaiting the green light to begin training collectors to conduct oral fluid collections, but the public has no idea at this point when this will happen. We continue to receive questions from customers, such as: What are we waiting for??? Before a trained oral fluid specimen collector may begin collections using this particular bodily fluid, there must be at least two laboratories certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and this has not occurred yet. Under the federal regulations, there must also be one laboratory to serve as a primary laboratory and a second lab to serve as a split-specimen testing laboratory. In addition, there are currently no oral fluid collection devices approved and available that meet the DOT rule requirements. Appendix B of the Part 40 Rules requires a single oral fluid collection device that may be subdivided in the donor’s presence. Once device(s) are available that meet the Appendix B requirements, the next hurdle is that they must be approved by HHS for use by the specific laboratory that will test the specimen that was collected by this particular, approved device. As you may imagine, this is a lengthy process.

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Department of Transportation (DOT) Will Soon Allow Oral Fluid for DOT Drug Tests

The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the effective date of regulations allowing oral fluid specimens to be used for federal drug tests. Under the DOT’s mandated testing program, found in 49 CFR Part 40, the addition of oral fluids is effective June 1, 2023.  (Note: The correct term for the bodily fluid used in drug testing regulations is ‘oral fluid’; however, we often notice people referring to it is “saliva testing”. Saliva is just one of the components that make up oral fluid.) The new rules require specific training for any person who will be conducting oral fluid collections for DOT drug tests. No currently-trained urine specimen collectors will be ‘grandfathered in’ or anything of the sorts. Basically, anyone wishing to become trained as an oral fluid specimen collector must participate in compliant training that meets the regulatory requirements. Oral fluid (O.F.) collector training is a little more complicated than urine specimen collector training, due to the requirement that O.F. specimen collectors need to be trained on the specific oral fluid collection device(s) they will use in the real world. There is no “one size fits all” for O.F. collector training, as there is with urine specimen collector training.

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What if a donor will not provide their SSN or ID number for a urine drug collection?

Every employer should have a comprehensive policy that addresses their procedures for testing/collections (i.e. What are the applicants' or employees' identification requirements at the collection site, What substances do they test for, How are collections conducted, How are refusals handled, What are the consequences of refusing or testing positive, etc.) ... if this had been a DOT collection, the answer is more cut and dry. If the collection was occurring under FMCSA authority, the Part 382 rules instruct the collector to use the donor's Commercial Driver License (CDL) number as the ID number in Step 1 of the CCF. This is a requirement due to Clearinghouse reporting. [The employer should have the donor's CDL number on file, even for applicants before they send them to you for a collection, so you can always call the DER for this information.]

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