This module will review the Department of Transportation's alcohol testing procedures. The alcohol testing procedures were added some years after the Department of Transportation's requirements for drug testing. Because the Department of Transportation decided on a breath testing program for its alcohol testing requirements, there is no laboratory result that would be reported to the medical review officer for interpretation and reporting. So there's no direct MRO involvement in DOT's alcohol testing programs. Confirmatory testing must be performed by an evidentiary breath testing device, and other specimens such as saliva or non-evidential breath testing devices can be used for the screening or initial test. All of the devices, whether they are evidentiary breath testing devices or alcohol screening devices, saliva or breath, must be approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to ensure that they have accuracy at the .02 alcohol concentration cutoff. The trained technicians perform the tests under the DOT regulations, and we'll talk a bit about those in just a moment. Alcohol test technicians are either breath alcohol technicians, VATs, or screening test technicians, STTs. The Department of Transportation's regulations have essentially a mirror program, if you will, for breath alcohol technicians that they have with urine specimen collectors. One of the differences here is that the required training must be in accordance with the DOT model curriculum, and they also have to complete an initial proficiency demonstration of their skill in doing mock breath tests using the evidential breath testing device that they will be using to conduct DOT alcohol tests. The VATs must take refresher training every five years. They also have a provision for error correction training within 30 days of notification of a fatal error in the process. And supervisors should not be breath alcohol technicians of their direct line supervised employees, as the same restriction we saw with urine specimen collectors and employee supervisor relationships. The screening test technician can only conduct the initial or screening test. They're using a non-evidential alcohol screening device, which can be either a breath device or a saliva device. They, too, have a required training and proficiency demonstration using a published model curriculum from the Department of Transportation. Refresher and error correction training is required, and breath alcohol technicians can certainly serve as screening test technicians, as long as they have demonstrated their proficiency using an alcohol screening device, which would be, again, a saliva or a non-evidential breath testing device. There are two types or categories of alcohol testing devices used in the DOT alcohol testing program, and the devices or the equipment used has to be certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And NHTSA has produced what are called conforming products lists over the past couple of decades that list the devices by their manufacturer, by their model number, that have met the specifications for conducting DOT workplace alcohol testing. And so those two categories of alcohol testing devices are evidential breath testing, or EBTs, and alcohol screening devices, ASDs, which come as either saliva devices or non-evidential breath devices. Each device that is approved by NHTSA has to have a quality assurance plan, and that plan is developed by the EBT or ASD manufacturer, submitted to NHTSA, approved by NHTSA. The quality assurance plan includes such things as how do you do an accuracy check or a quality control check on the device? What are the tolerance ranges of the measurements of alcohol concentration, specifically in the quality control arena? What are the maintenance requirements for the device? And in the case of screening devices, many of them have expiration dates and specific requirements for shelf life and other storage requirements. Of course, for federal testing, which DOT alcohol testing is, there would be the use of a form to document that the test has been conducted and that it has been conducted under federal authority. And so the DOT has an OMB-approved alcohol testing form. Currently, there is no electronic version of the alcohol testing form permitted, so it is a paper form. However, because we're not transporting a specimen to a laboratory for analysis, the alcohol testing form is a simpler three-ply form with copies for the breath alcohol technician, the donor or subject, and the employer. The printed result from the evidential breath testing device must be attached or affixed to each copy of the alcohol testing form for a confirmation result. An initial result does not have to have a printed test result, but instead can be recorded by the screening test technician or the breath alcohol technician onto the alcohol testing form. The alcohol testing form does require, like the custody and control form for urine drug testing, does require the signature of the donor or the test subject and the breath alcohol technician. In many ways, the alcohol testing procedures are much simpler than the procedures for collecting a urine specimen for DOT drug testing. And so the screening or initial test procedures using either an evidential breath testing device or an alcohol screening device, the subject provides the breath or saliva sample. There's no prior waiting period. There's no kind of preparation necessary prior to starting the alcohol testing process. If the result on the initial test is less than 0.02 alcohol concentration, it is negative. If the result on the initial test, saliva device or breath device, is 0.02 or greater, then a confirmation test will be required. For the confirmation test, remember that an evidential breath testing device is needed for confirmation. Even if the first test was using a saliva device or a non-evidential breath testing device, the confirmation test must use an evidential breath testing device. If an evidential breath testing device was used for the initial test, the same EBT can be used for confirmation. Prior to taking the breath sample using the evidential breath testing device for the confirmation test, there must be a 15-minute, what's referred to as a deprivation period. The test subject or donor is under the observation and control of the breath alcohol technician during that time. The purpose of this deprivation period is to make sure that the test subject does not put anything into their mouth, drink anything, or in any way be able to confound the confirmation test result from residual mouth alcohol that may be present if the person had recently used a mouthwash or some other thing, had something else in their mouth that may have had an alcohol content. The confirmation test then, after the 15-minute deprivation period, is to be initiated within 30 minutes of when the screening test was completed. The first step before taking the individual's breath sample is that the EBT must do an air blank test. An air blank test is essentially taking in ambient air into the chamber of the device and providing a 0.00 reading, again, to show that there is no alcohol present in the EBT's mechanism or in its chamber and that there is no alcohol in the immediate environs that would be picked up by the evidential breath testing device. Once the air blank reads 0.00, the software of the evidential breath testing device must display a sequential test number. This is a number that identifies this particular alcohol test, and it is produced by the software associated with the EBT. Then the breath alcohol technician instructs the individual to blow into the EBT mouthpiece and obtains the breath sample. If the result on the confirmation test is less than 0.02, the test is a negative, regardless of what the initial test result was. If the result on the confirmation, the evidential breath test, is 0.02 to 0.039, the employee cannot perform safety-sensitive functions and must be temporarily removed from duty. A result of 0.04 or greater is a rule violation and is the equivalent of a quote, positive alcohol test, end quote. If the results of 0.02 or greater are identified on the evidential breath testing device on the confirmation test, the breath alcohol technician must report those immediately to the DER. Because, again, the individual cannot resume performing safety-sensitive work, must remain off of safety-sensitive work until either the period of safety suspension has elapsed or until they go through the substance abuse professional return to duty process. There are three copies of the printed result, obviously, and those are affixed to each copy of the alcohol testing form. The Part 40 alcohol testing procedures do contain some provisions concerning a person that may not be able to provide a sufficient saliva sample for testing or a person that may not be able to provide a sufficient or adequate breath sample for analysis by a breath testing device. If the donor is unable to provide a saliva sample, which would only be used, remember, for the initial test, not for the confirmation test, then the test must be conducted using a breath testing device. If the donor is unable to provide a sufficient breath sample after at least two attempts, then the saliva test can be used if it is a screening test. If it is a confirmation test, obviously, then the testing has to be discontinued and you notify the DER. That would be the equivalent of the shy bladder process for a urine specimen collection. And the donor test subject must then undergo a medical examination to determine if there is a medical condition that causes their inability to provide a breath specimen. In the alcohol testing procedures, since there is no medical review officer, review and interpretation of any test results, and there is no laboratory that is doing the analysis of the specimen, the determinations about whether or not a test is valid or invalid or canceled is made by either the breath alcohol technician or the employer designated employer representative. And so here are the circumstances when a DOT alcohol test must be canceled. When there is a fatal flaw in a saliva screening test where the alcohol screening device did not read within the proper time frame, which is specified in the quality assurance plan, where the alcohol screening device did not activate, or where the screening device was past its expiration date. So those would require canceling of the test. The fatal flaws for a confirmation test, again, remember these are related to an evidential breath testing device, which is what must be used for a confirmation test. If there was not a 15-minute wait between screen and confirmation, then the test is canceled. If there was no air blank conducted before the confirmation test, and that air blank result is printed on the confirmation test result. If there is an air blank test that was done, but the result was greater than 0.00, that's a fatal flaw for the confirmation test result. If the evidential breath testing device did not print a result, that is also a requirement for the test to be canceled. If the next evidential breath testing device calibration check is outside the tolerance range, then any previous test is canceled. We'll end our quick review of the DOT alcohol testing procedures by talking about correctable flaws, flaws that occur in the alcohol testing process or in the documentation of the alcohol testing form that could be corrected by a statement or other means of correcting the omission of information. So correctable flaws include where the breath alcohol technician or the screening test technician failed to sign the ATF, where the breath alcohol technician or the screening test technician failed to note the employee's refusal to sign the ATF Step 4 if the confirmation result is greater than 0.02. Also, a correctable flaw is the use of a non-DOT alcohol testing form for a DOT test. I want to mention here real quickly that the donor, the test subject, is asked to sign the alcohol testing form prior to giving their specimen. If they refuse to sign the form at that point, that's a refusal to test. The test subject or donor only signs the ATF after they have provided a specimen and the result has been identified if the result is 0.02 or greater. And here, if the donor does not sign the form a second time when the confirmation result was greater than 0.02, that is not a refusal to test, but the breath alcohol technician must note the donor's refusal to sign the second time. The breath alcohol technician or the screening test technician can correct or repeat a test if an error is discovered while the employee is still at the testing site. So this has been a quick review of the alcohol testing procedures. And again, the really critical thing here is that it is an evidential breath testing program and the cutoff, if you will, or the numbers for a positive test violation of the rule are 0.04 or greater. A result of 0.02 up to 0.039 does require that the safety-sensitive employee be temporarily suspended from safety-sensitive duties. For more information, visit www.fema.gov

Department of Transportation

alcohol testing procedures

breath testing program

evidentiary breath testing device

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration