EDI Newsletter October 2008

Visit us at Staffing World and win this New iPod Nano

Booth 728

Our new Online Managment System (OMS) is now live. Call your Sales Rep for details.

Have you tried our new flat panel test cup? A perfect product to use with our new OMS system.

EDI NEWS

Health Canada License obtained

June 2008

The government of Canada recently issued Express Diagnostics a license (#77258) authorizing distribution in the country. With licensure under the name DrugCheck® Onsite Multi-Drug Drug of Abuse Test (urine), EDI is now able to market its products throughout Canada. For more information, feel free to contact EDI or visit the Health Canada website.

We’re different

What distinguishes DrugCheck® from other on-site products is its superior ease of use. DrugCheck’s patented technology requires:

No handling or manipulation to activate testing
No tipping or tilting cup to activate test
No dipping reagent strips or test cards into specimen
No dripping specimen with pipettes

COUGH/FLU MEDICATION AND DRUG TESTING.

Well it sure is getting cold outside and of course, we all know what that means.... headaches, fever, coughing, stuffy noses and all those wild and wonderful aches and pains. My Grandma used to give me a piping hot glass of lemon and honey and it always seemed to make me feel better. These days, of course, we have a myriad of options when it comes to over the counter (OTC) or now behind the counter medications to relieve our symptoms. But what's in them and how will it affect my drug testing program? Great questions and thats exactly what I'm going to tackle for you this month.

Codeine, hydrocodone, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylephrine may all be used to treat symptoms of cold and flu. It has long been said that products containing these drugs may result in positives when using on-site drug testing products. Is it so?

Codeine

Codeine is used as a cough suppressant and to relieve moderate to severe pain. Codeine enters the body and when it metabolizes, it changes to morphine.The use of codeine may result in a positive result on the OPI panel.

Hydrocodone

Hydrocodone is commonly used to treat pain. It is also approved in a few medications as a cough suppressant. On the other side of the coin, hydrocodone is a very popular drug of abuse, giving the user an increased sense of euphoria. When abused, hydrocodone can lead to serious illness or injury and is extremely addictive. Hydrocodone may result in a positive result on the OPI panel. This is more likely if you test for OPI at a cutoff of 300ng rather than the more common 2000ng.

Pseudoephedrine

Pseudoephedrine is commonly used as a decongestant. A lot of people in the USA refer to it as Sudafed, which is actually a brand name owned by Pfizer. Sudafed also comes in a pseudoephedrine-free OTC marketed as Sudafed PE.

Ephedrine

Ephedrine is a sympathomimetic amine similar in structure to the synthetic derivatives amphetamine and methamphetamine. Ephedrine is commonly used as a stimulant, appetite suppressant, concentration aid, decongestant and to treat hypertension associated with regional anesthesia.

Sympathomimetics will probably not trigger MET/AMP strips in your on-site screening test like the DrugCheck cup but in higher doses it may. It is a common misconception that these OTC drugs will cause false positives. This highlights the importance of confirming your on-site positives with a GC/MS testing process. With the two-tiered testing process and the definitive identification and quantification with GC/MS confirmation, the use of these OTC drugs will not result in a confirmed positive drug test.

Be sure to inform the donor to keep records of any drugs they have taken. This includes OTC and prescription drugs. This will assist them when they are contacted by the MRO who will make the final determination.

Confirmations

If you would like to talk to us about your confirmations please feel free to call Casey Collins at 888-466-8433. We use a network of certified labs and collection sites to make your lab testing a breeze. We also have competitive prices on:

Hair Testing
Saliva Testing
ETG Testing

Call or email today.