Standards Relaxed for Employers’ Drug Tests

The government has decided not to hold employers’ drug testing labs to the same professional standards as other clinical laboratories, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan said Friday.

The department removed such a provision from rules taking effect Sept. 1 after receiving several complaints that it could inhibit employers’ efforts to screen workers for drug use.

If employers using their own laboratories were compelled to meet the new federal standards, it may have “an unintended chilling effect on efforts to establish drug testing programs,” Sullivan said in a written statement.

Sullivan said he will seek advice on how to ensure that the drug tests done by these labs are accurate.