“Fingerprints are the future for workplace drug testing”
- Fingerprint drug test enables socially distant workplace testing to continue despite challenging working conditions
- Objective Health appointed as new UK partner for innovative fingerprint drug test and will immediately offer the solution to its occupational health clients
Objective Health – the Newcastle-based provider of national workplace training and substance misuse services – has added the innovative Intelligent Fingerprinting drug test to its portfolio. Objective Health provides random and for cause drug testing services to a range of organisations – primarily in the construction, fabrication, manufacturing and oil & gas sectors – to support them in the proactive delivery of their employee drug usage policies.
Objective Health has selected the fingerprint-based screening approach – that uses sweat to detect drug use within the last 14-16 hours – as its primary workplace fitness for duty drug testing approach. The company believes that the non-invasive, cost-effective and rapid sample collection benefits of fingerprint-based testing – coupled with its short ‘window of detection’ which is ideal for fitness for duty screening – will rapidly make fingerprints the default method for workplace drug testing.
According to Simon Smith, Director, Objective Health: “in my opinion the fingerprint drug testing method from Intelligent Fingerprinting is the future for workplace drug testing. Not only does it enable us to carry on with random drug testing for our clients while also adhering to today’s challenging social distancing guidelines, but it also represents a significant step forward from traditional urine and oral fluid based tests in terms of hygiene and end-to-end testing convenience.
“For Objective Health, the fingerprint approach eliminates most of the delays associated with traditional collection methods thanks to its more hygienic and non-invasive nature,” continued Simon Smith. “Importantly, the cost savings for employers are significant for the fingerprint method when considering the entire drug test process as we are able to consistently deliver a higher number of tests per day and minimise disruption to employee work patterns.”
Dr Paul Yates of Intelligent Fingerprinting added: “The portability of our system enables occupational health service providers such as Objective Health to take drug testing to workplace locations and, with results available on-site within minutes, employees are able to get back to work quickly. The cost and efficiency savings of our approach in comparison with traditional urine testing are wide ranging, and include speed of sample collection and minimal disruption to work schedules. There’s also no need for the specially prepared, gender-specific sample collection facilities required by other test types. Fingerprint drug screening is popular among staff as the process is more dignified and transparent. Results can be delivered with the subject present – eliminating potential chain of evidence queries. Together, these factors are seeing the fingerprint test gather momentum in the UK workplace drug screening market.”
Fingerprint-based drug testing – how it works
Intelligent Fingerprinting’s drug testing solution features a small, tamper-evident Drug Screening Cartridge onto which ten fingerprint sweat samples are collected, in a process which takes less than a minute. The Intelligent Fingerprinting portable analysis unit then reads the Cartridge and provides a positive or negative result on-screen for all drugs in the test in ten minutes. A fingerprint-based laboratory confirmation service is also available.
About Objective Health
Objective Health provides occupational health, medical, absence management, health and safety consultancy, drugs and alcohol testing, drugs and alcohol training, first aid training, manual handling training and much more across Newcastle, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, Durham, Northumberland, Cleveland, Cumbria and the rest of the UK including London, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
www.objectivehealth.co.uk
About Intelligent Fingerprinting
Intelligent Fingerprinting’s portable Drug Screening System works by analysing fingerprint sweat. It is non-invasive, fast and cost-effective, with sample collection taking seconds and simultaneous screening for multiple drug groups in ten minutes. A laboratory confirmation service is also available.
The system has applications within many sectors and customers include employers in safety-critical industries such as construction, transport and logistics firms, drug treatment and family safeguarding organisations, as well as UK coroners. The company has distributors across the globe, including the USA.
Founded in 2007, Intelligent Fingerprinting is a spin-out company from the University of East Anglia (UEA). The company is based in Cambridge, England and employs around 30 people.
