A new fingerprint-based system has been made available to construction firms carrying out employee drug testing.
The system, from Intelligent Fingerprinting, initially analyses sweat from a fingerprint to establish if an individual has recently used cannabis, cocaine, opiates or amphetamines. Results can be provided within minutes.
The firm behind the system said more traditional forms of drug testing, such as analysis of urine or saliva samples, can involve “invasive, time-consuming and undignified” procedures.
If the fingerprint system results in a positive screening result, the tester can then use a fingerprint collection kit to collect samples for a laboratory confirmation test.
Dr Paul Yates from Intelligent Fingerprinting explained, “Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, construction firms have a duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their staff, so an effective employee drug screening and testing service should be a critical element of any workplace drug policy.
“However, it’s also essential that firms and their employees are completely confident in the accuracy of their drug testing procedures, regardless of whether they’re testing urine, saliva or sweat. For this reason, a laboratory confirmation test should always be carried out following a positive screening result. With our non-invasive system – which combines the portable reader with the simple one-touch drug screening cartridge, and the unequivocal results offered with our Fingerprint Collection Kit for Laboratory Analysis – construction firms can enjoy all the benefits of fingerprint-based drug testing and be confident about the end-to-end reliability of their process.”
