Benedict Associates Ltd. have just introduced the Intoxilyzer 240 which tests for alcohol, in order to support the aim of drug-free work environments for the companies they are helping.

Vaughn Mosher, Benedict’s managing director, said: ”Our clients have been asking for this for a long time.”

Today, companies contract with their employees to be drug and alcohol free, and the process provided by Benedict Associates is supportive of the employee as well as the employer.

Typically, there is a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule which gives employees a chance to get the help they need to get off drugs and alcohol. Mr Mosher says that when someone tests positive he will also assist, pointing those who need help towards the Employee Assistance Programme, for example.

While Benedict Associates has been providing drug testing for many years, alcohol testing at this level of sophistication is an important step for more than reasons of low productivity and disruption. In environments where workers are using tools or driving vehicles it is important for safety reasons as well.

But Mr Mosher explained there has long been a cultural issue where it has been argued that the principal users of alcohol as a drug of choice were white, and the principal users of marijuana as a drug of choice are black. Discrimination has been argued as marijuana is illegal, while alcohol has remained legal.

Work-place drug testing for both alcohol and illegal drugs levels the playing field. Neither are permitted and are equally cause for disciplinary action.

Before the advent of the Intoxilyzer 240, only the Police Service had equipment of this standard. It is a hand-held, fully portable instrument for fast, accurate, on-the-spot measurement of a donor’s breath alcohol concentration. In a press release about the new equipment, Benedict Associates said: “The analytical functions of the Intoxilyzer 240, including the actual breath sampling, are fully automatic and cannot be influenced by either the donor or the operator. In addition, each time a donor is tested, the test number, alcohol reading, date, time (hour-minute), and other pertinent data are stored in memory.

“The Intoxilyzer 240 is sufficiently accurate for evidential breath alcohol measurement and is on the US Department of Transportation Conforming Products List of Evidential Breath Testing Devices.

“Many of our client companies have staff employed in safety positions, in construction work, operating machinery, or driving vehicles on public roads and, from time to time, have reasonable cause to suspect alcohol or drug use.

“Now we can provide immediate and valid data regarding anyone’s alcohol concentration via breath analysis.

“The results are private and confidential for the employer only and can be managed within the company’s Drug Free Workplace Policy guidelines.”

If the company is big enough, Mr Mosher will visit the company and test there, and for smaller businesses, employees will go to his offices.

Drug testing of all kinds can have surprising outcomes with one employee, who was suspected of smoking marijuana during his break times — a habit which caused discontent among the staff who observed him — testing completely drug-free. He was, in fact, rolling his own tobacco cigarettes. It cleared his reputation and resolved the discontent that existed at the workplace.

For more information contact Vaughn Mosher at vmosher@logic.bm or visit their website at www.benedict.bm