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Overview:
Hair testing is increasingly becoming the testing technology of choice for many corporate drug-testing programs. Studies comparing positivity rates in hair versus urine indicate that employers can detect nearly twice as many drug users before they are employed. For some drug categories the positive hit rate is much higher. Some additional advantages of hair testing over urinalysis include an increased window of detection and increased likelihood of specimen availability for retest.

ESS offers complete hair-testing programs that include collection site location and medical review. These programs can be established with hair testing alone or in combination with other testing programs.

Drugs deposit in or on hair by several methods. These include transmission from the blood supply, through perspiration and skin oil. In addition, drugs are externally deposited on the hair by environmental smoke or, more reasonably, by smoke from the users own ingestion. As with the smoke from tobacco users, an individual’s hair will be more susceptible to environmental smoke from his or her own drug use activity. Both the accessible (or surface) and semi-accessible domain are accessible by external drugs but can be effectively decontaminated by hair washing and swelling techniques during the analysis process. It is the inaccessible domain that is analyzed in hair testing technology because it is highly resistant to the penetration by external drugs and contains only drugs due to drug use.

Collection:
During hair sample collection, a small amount of hair is taken from the donor. The test requirements are 120 mg of hair by weight, which is the equivalent to approximately 120 strands of hair that is over 1-1/2 inches long. Ideally, the hair is cut from the crown of the head and in most cases is cosmetically unnoticeable. If the donor has no head hair or thinning hair, the sample can be obtained from the chest or underarm. The hair sample is placed in a tamper proof specimen package. The specimen and chain of custody are sent overnight to the laboratory for analysis.

Testing:
Hair testing can accommodate the five-drug panel most commonly used for workplace drug testing: amphetamines (methamphetamine and amphetamine), cocaine, opiates (heroin, morphine, codeine), phencyclidine (PCP) and marijuana (THC). Additionally, hair testing can recover MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy, a club drug of increasing concern, at the same testing price. Negative results are reported via email, fax or web-based reporting to ESS clients usually within 1 to 3 business days.

Testing methods used in hair testing are well documented in the scientific literature including immunoassay screening followed by confirmation of positive samples by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In fact, many assays used in hair testing employ the more sensitive confirmation testing methodology – GC/MS/MS (tandem mass spectrometry.)

ESS hair testing programs include medical review of all confirmed positive results before reporting to the client.

For more information, please contact the ESS Drug Screening Department at DrugScreening@employscreen.com or by calling 1-800-473-7778 and asking for the Drug Screening Department.
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Urine alcohol testing is an option that ESS can offer its clients, but first you will want to consider this: There is no direct correlation from urine alcohol levels to breath or blood alcohol levels. ESS’s medical review department will not review urine-alcohol results, even if the laboratory reports the alcohol result as “positive”. ESS does not report urine alcohol results as positive or negative, bur rather with a quantitative level only for your interpretation.

Per ESS’s medical review department:

• There is no legal standard or definition to determine intoxication with urine alcohol (or ethanol), unlike a breath alcohol test. It is important to note that alcohol is a legal drug for individuals 21 years and older. Therefore, determining consequences for the presence of ethanol in urine is not as clear cut as for illegal substances.
• The urine ethanol level cannot be related to the breath alcohol concentration (BAC).
• Ethanol can be broken down, or metabolized, in urine (unlike breath alcohol), which means results are not necessarily reliable. It is possible that ethanol can be detected in a person’s urine for many hours after they have had a drink even though they may not be intoxicated. Also, certain medical conditions can cause “positive” urine alcohol results, even if alcohol has not been consumed.
• Federal testing programs do not permit urine-alcohol testing due to the problems associated with urine alcohol testing.

If you require alcohol testing to determine intoxication in post-accident or reasonable-suspicion situations, the recommended test would be a saliva or breath alcohol test, e.g. breathalyzer. Many occupational health clinics and emergency rooms offer BAC testing services and ESS can coordinate through our extended network sites. Due to the fact t hat BAC results are made available immediately; ESS will instruct the testing site to report results directly to the company representative. DOT regulations require this procedure in certain circumstances. ESS can also setup consolidated billing for this service to be included with client invoicing.

ESS also offers an onsite point-of-collection saliva alcohol test device called the QED that your company could purchase and self administer. Saliva alcohol levels can be correlated to breath alcohol levels. The QED is also DOT approved for screening; however, any positive result would require BAC confirmation. The cost per test is $15 with a minimum purchase of 10 test kits.

For more information, please contact the ESS Drug Screening Department at DrugScreening@employscreen.com or by calling 1-800-473-7778 and asking for the Drug Screening Department.

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ESS is pleased to announce a new Criminal Search process that greatly increases the scope of our coverage.  We think you are going to like it. 

Greater Auxiliary National Criminal Index Search Coverage

We will now conduct our Auxiliary National Criminal Index Search (ANCI) on all names found -- not just the primary name.  There will be no additional charge for this enhancement.  Maiden names, previous married names and any other names found (except those that are clearly just misspellings) will be searched and displayed on the report.  Please note these additional name searches are ANCI searches only -- not county or state criminal history searches.  (Unless you already have an ANCI policy in place with us, we will contact you for permission to conduct a standard criminal search in the location where an ANCI match is found.  Additional Criminal History Searches are $16 each.)  If you have any questions about how the ANCI search works and what it identifies please contact us.

“Expanded” Criminal History Search

We are now offering our “Expanded” Criminal History Search option for only $19 (per name.)In this search we conduct a county or state Criminal History Search in every location the applicant has lived or worked for the past seven years.  The locations are primarily based on addresses appearing on the Social Security Number Trace.  We’ll also conduct a Criminal History Search on any matches from the ANCI search.  On top of that, we add a Federal Criminal Records Search in every location for the past seven years. 

Most crimes are prosecuted at the county level. (Some states maintain a state repository of criminal records that has been compiled from the various counties.)  Other crimes are prosecuted in a federal jurisdiction.  Historically, federal crimes have included offenses such as kidnapping, interstate drug trafficking, civil rights violations or anything involving more than one state.  Over the past couple of years, however, Congress has been federalizing more crimes … especially cases relating to money or financial transactions.  Theft, bankcard fraud, embezzlement, forgery, and mail fraud are now often handled at the federal level. 

The “Expanded” search must be added to a report package. (It is not a stand alone report because we need the SSN Trace in a package to determine search locations.) Please note that county or state records access fees may still apply.  See our Additional Fees Listing on our client web site at www.essclientservices.com for details about locations and amounts.  (User Name: “ESS”  Password: “employment”  Both are case sensitive.)

Let us know if you would like to have your report order form changed to reflect the “expanded” criminal search option at $19.  Email us at customerservice@employscreen.com and we’ll modify your form and e-mail you the updated version.
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Violations of federal criminal law are prosecuted in the federal court, a totally separate judicial system from the county court system.  Some examples of federal crimes include mail fraud, interstate drug trafficking, certain firearm violations, bank robbery, and crimes committed on Indian reservations or federal property.  There are 94 Federal U.S. District Courts.  Some districts comprise an entire state; more populous states may have three or four federal district courts.  Regardless, ESS is able to search federal records for an entire state in one process. While the vast majority of the crimes are prosecuted at the county level, a federal criminal record search should also be considered.

Recently we conducted a criminal records search for a client. When the records came back as No Record Found, the client was very concerned. The applicant had stated that he was charged and convicted of kidnapping and had served time in a federal low security prison and placed on probation for three years. Since this was a federal crime, there was no record of the arrest, conviction or time served in the county or state records.

Since 9-11 there have been more and more crimes being charged at the Federal level and therefore not picked up when a county or statewide search are run.

When ordering an Expanded Criminal Search, the Federal Criminal Search is automatically included.

If you would like to order a Federal Criminal Search as part of your package, please let us know and we will modify your report order form for you.
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Copyright © 2006 Employment Screening Services, Inc.
627 E. Sprague Avenue
Suite 100
Spokane, WA  99202
1-800-473-7778