Britain's businesses can now tell if an employee has taken drugs up to three months previously, with a new hair analysis test from Bupa.
Around one in three adults between the ages of 16 and 59 living in England and Wales admit to illegal drug use at some time* and many firms, especially where workplace safety is critical, are legally obliged to prevent staff from working while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Bupa Wellness helps employers concerned about the impact of drugs and alcohol in the workplace by developing specific policies and providing screening, whether pre-employment, random or post incident related. Last year, Bupa tested more than 20,000 employees for drug and alcohol consumption and was called to attend workplaces around 100 times per month following a drug or alcohol related incident.
Dr Jenny Leeser, clinical director of occupational health for Bupa Wellness commented:Urine and saliva tests are particularly useful when random testing for drugs as the employee has no prior warning. The advantage of hair analysis is that drugs remain in the human hair shaft for up to 90 days, so even if an employee abstains from taking drugs for a few weeks before the test, they will still be detected. Such tests are particularly important for people working in the aviation industry, railway and manufacturing companies.
Bupa's new hair test will be provided by Psychemedics Corporation, the world's largest tester for drug abuse using hair analysis.
said Dr Leeser,The Psychemedics hair test is a key addition to the comprehensive drug and alcohol screening programmes we already offer our clients and will further help them establish and maintain a drug-free workplace
Bupa pioneered health screening in the UK and offers a range of preventive services to keep employees in the best of health and at work through a range of occupational health, risk assessment, sickness absence reduction and health promotion services. Bupa looks after the health of employees from 75 percent of FTSE 100 companies as well as thousands of smaller businesses across the country.
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Bupa's purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. A leading international healthcare group, we offer personal and company health insurance, run care homes for older people and hospitals, and provide workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management services, including health coaching, and home healthcare.
With no shareholders, we invest our profits to provide more and better healthcare. We are committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease management and ageing.
Employing nearly 52,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America.
For more information, visit www.bupa.com.
