Jersey Shore Hospital Starting DOT Hair Drug Testing

Jersey Shore Hospital has recently started performing Department of Transportation (DOT) Drug Testing using hair samples.

The Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 requires drug and alcohol testing of safety sensitive transportation employees in aviation, trucking, railroads, mass transit, pipelines, and other transportation industries.

Therefore, all employees of these types of companies must be drug and alcohol tested by federal law. The most common test had previously been the urine test. However, in recent years, hair testing has gained popularity mainly due to the fact that it can detect drug use up to 90 days prior to the current date of testing. Urine tests are only able to go back a couple days at most.

Jersey Shore Hospital uses a standard 5-panel test that includes checking for opiates, PCP, meth, cocaine and marijuana. There can also be a 10-panel test conducted if requested by the company.

Hair samples are taken to measure 1.5 inches in length and should be the diameter of a straw (roughly 150 strands). Samples will be typically taken from the person’s scalp unless a proper sample size is unable to be retrieved, in which case, hair will be taken from a different part of the body.

All certified collectors in the Jersey Shore Hospital Laboratory are able to perform DOT Hair Testing procedures.

If you have any questions, concerns or would like to get more information about DOT Hair Drug Testing, please contact the Occupational Health Office at 398-5214.