HEALTH AND SANITATION
33
“Urine and
blood tests
for drugs may
indicate the
presence of a
substance up to
30 days after
exposure to the
drug, long after
the effects
have worn
off. This is
especially true
of cannabis.”
detect impairment regardless of the cause, including
sleep-related fatigue, which is a far more common
factor in workplace accidents than drug or alcohol use.
Additional sources of impairment may include (but are
not limited to) the effects of prescription medications,
emotional distress and acute mental distraction.
determined before a safety risk is created. Based on
the assessment of the employee, an employer can then
choose to test for drugs or alcohol.
Contrary to the issues posed by traditional drug testing
programmes, impairment testing has the potential to
increase workplace wellness, improve communication,
as well as perceptions of trust and job satisfaction
among employees and management. In the case that an employee’s decreased alertness
is due to fatigue, stress or other factors not related to
drug or alcohol intoxication, the employer can decide,
for example, to reassign the employee to a less critical
task or ask the employee to use a countermeasure to
help raise their alertness level, such as a cup of coffee,
a 10-minute break or another suitable response for the
company, the employee and the work environment.
AlertMeter: a viable alternative Summary
Currently, the only workplace safety tools that can
provide the level of insight necessary to help companies
transition from drug testing to impairment testing relate
to alertness testing as a fitness-for-duty solution. This
innovative approach is relatively new to the marketplace,
although the science has existed for decades. Principally, alertness testing is not about managing the
employee’s life at home; it is about ensuring that the
employee who is working in a safety-sensitive job is
alert and in a safe state-of-mind. Unfortunately, when
companies rely primarily on drug testing, the dangers of
fatigue, stress and on-the-job intoxication are realised
only after they have contributed to an accident.
One such system called the AlertMeter was originally
developed in the 1990s and scientifically validated
in 2009 through a study funded by the US National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
It is now made commercially available worldwide by
Predictive Safety SRP Inc, based in Colorado, US, where
cannabis is also legal for recreational use. Predictive
Safety has been supporting American businesses
through the use the AlertMeter as a viable alternative to
drug testing for several years. They also have an office
in South Africa.
The AlertMeter system gauges users’ performance on a
graphical test that lasts between 60 and 90 seconds. In
the case that an employee performs significantly lower
than their personal baseline (established after taking
the test 10 times), the user and their supervisor are
notified so that the employee’s fitness for work can be
November 2019 Volume 25 I Number 9
Building on all the advancements in workplace safety
over the past few decades requires shifting from
reacting to incidents after they occur to managing risks
in a truly predictive and preventative manner. Because
alertness testing provides knowledge of a risk before
the risk can pose a hazard, it is a sign of the future of
workplace safety – focused on prevention and respect
for the safety of workers and workplaces alike.
For more information, visit: www.predictivesafety.com/
alertmeter. PA
References
• National Workrights Institute (2010). Impairment testing
– does it work? National Workrights Institute. Retrieved
from http://workrights.us/?products=impairment-testing-
does-it-work
Dr Douglas Potter is
director of Predictive
Safety South Africa. He was
voted among the top 10
doctors in fatigue in 2012
and headed the team that
built Africa’s first Fatigue
Centre. The team has won
seven international awards
on fatigue — two of these
awards are Gold Quills.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za