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Positive Workplace Drug Tests Hit Low, Quest Diagnostics Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 18:00 CDT

By Teresa M. McAleavy, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.

Jun. 20--Lyndhurst-based Quest Diagnostics Inc. says positive results in workplace drug tests last year were the lowest since the company began testing.

Quest said 4.1 percent of the 7.3 million workplace drug tests it conducted last year came back positive, the lowest since it began screening for illicit drugs in 1988.

Quest's Drug Testing Index showed that 53 percent of the positive results were for marijuana, down from the prior year, the company said in a statement. Positive results for amphetamines declined to 0.48 percent of all drug tests performed on the general workforce. The company defines the general workforce as those who are not mandated by the government to be drug tested.

"During 2005, we detected a downward trend in amphetamines positive test results in the general U.S. workforce and in 2006 the trend took hold among all U.S. workers," said Barry Sample, director of science and technology for Quest Diagnostics' employer solutions division.

"In the first five months of 2006, amphetamines drug-test positives declined to a 3 1/2- year low among both groups, driven by significant declines in methamphetamine drug-test positives, Sample said. "This finding could reflect the increased efforts by federal, state and local authorities to shut down clandestine methamphetamine laboratories."

The 2005 index is down from 2004, when 4.5 percent of all tests came back positive. In 1988, about 13.6 percent of all drug tests done by the company were positive.

Quest said most of its tests are conducted on job candidates for employers. Other drug tests are performed to screen workers regularly for safety reasons. These include people who work in fields where testing is government mandated, such as pilots and nuclear power plant employees.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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DGX,

Source: The Record - Hackensack, New Jersey

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