Training Marbles Blog

Received a call this morning regarding a Diluted Specimen which has sparked me to post some general information for all employers. So the question becomes what to do with a dilute specimen if an employee is covered by DOT, DOT rules prevail (RETEST with MRO follow-up). If it’s NON-DOT test than this is a procedure item that need to be addressed in your companies policy.

Regarding these two categories of dilute, DOT and HHS differ as follows:

As drug free workplace programs have evolved, a parallel industry devoted to finding any and all means of hiding the presence of illicit drugs has evolved right along with it. This doesn’t mean that everyone is trying to beat the test. Employer should remain aware that there are many legitimate reasons that could cause a diluted specimens, including disease states, medications, medical advice, habits of fluid consumption, and types of fluid consumed by normal people living normal lives.

While it is important to list clear levels of  “normal urine” and remain consistent with all employee’s. Here are a few words that require your immediate attention; inconclusive, substituted, not consistent with human urine, adulterated specimen..just to name a few.

Employers should break up the group of dilute specimens (creatinines of 2 mg/dl to less than 20 mg/dl) into two categories. For simplicity we will call them “dilute” and “hyper-dilute” and define the corresponding levels and next step for your company.