Employers should be aware of rising drug use in Britain, says a leading screening provider.
One in 30 employees has drugs in their system while at work, statistics released by Concateno, a European drug and alcohol screening specialist, show.
These figures are general and not specific to the rail industry, which has strict drugs and alcohol procedures and uses random testing on all grades of staff to combat the problem.
In the past five years there has been a significant increase in British employees testing positive for drugs. Drug use was identified in 3.23 per cent of the employees tested in 2011, rising from 2.26 per cent in 2007. The most prevalent drugs used by UK employees are cannabis, opiates – excluding heroin – and cocaine.
Dr Claire George, laboratory director at Concateno, comments: ‘The positivity rate of 3.23 per cent reported in this study demonstrates that drug use in the workplace is an issue that employers should be aware of.
“These are conservative figures across the workplace, when you consider how many companies do not have a screening programme in place.”
The data indicates that 25-34 year olds are more likely to test positive for Class A drugs including cocaine and amphetamines.
In the railway screening procedures discreetly provided by companies like Express Medicals result in a much brighter picture. Certainly this industry has problems like any other but the vast majority of railway staff are professional and have nothing to fear from random D and A testing.
Express Medicals has developed a winning formula, blending medical expertise with first-class service levels.
The company was established by directors Dr Dan Hegarty and John O’ Donnell in 1996, providing occupational health, screening and drugs & alcohol testing services to the rail industry and across a wide variety of businesses and industries.
Nationally delivered services are simple to book, available at short notice, professionally carried out by highly skilled medical staff.
The no-nonsense two-hour national specimen collection service is complemented by a wide range of other drug and alcohol technical services. Frontline collection and results services are supported by the world-class science of LGC Forensics.
Express Medicals is currently building its portfolio of clients to include companies operating across a broad range of industries. This means that even more businesses will benefit from knowing they are working with a trusted partner who will help them understand and meet their regulatory commitments in occupational health both easily and affordably.
