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Bosses dealing diuretics to help workers cheat drug tests: supplier
Chris Thomson
February 3, 2009 - 9:04AM
Mining industry employers are pushing diuretics on their best workers to help them cheat compulsory drug tests, a Perth-based supplier has revealed.
Perth Hydroponic Centre owner "Aggi" (who would only be identified by his nickname) told WAtoday.com.au that since 2000 he'd sold more than 4500 bottles of a diuretic known as UltraMask, mainly to mining sector employees and their bosses.
"It's a herbal detox that clears your urine or your bladder for five hours," Aggi said of the drink.
"So it gives you a bit of a window."
Aggi said UltraMask enabled workers to temporarily escape marijuana detection - even though traces of the drug could linger in human fat cells for three months.
He said amphetamines and ecstasy passed through the body in 48 hours and so weren't such a testing concern for party-prone staffers coming off long weekends or leave breaks.
"We have bosses in the mining industry that come in and buy this product so they can keep their best workers," Aggi said.
He explained it was not mining giants such as BHP Billiton or Rio Tinto that were buying UltraMask, but smaller owner-operator contractors whose employees were forced by the big firms to undertake drug tests.
"The guys under 30 go out and party solid and take amphetamines to keep them up," Aggi said.
"They go back to work to recuperate and they're stuffed, whereas the middle-aged guy in his 30s and 40s is more level-headed.
"He has a bit of a 'choof' on his week off, then up to three months afterwards he can get done."
Aggi said that extensive marketing on YouTube had delivered him many repeat customers.
He said UltraMask was not the only diuretic available on the web, let alone in Perth, but that he could not vouch for other products' safety or effectiveness.
"There are plenty of brands out there, buy what they have in them I wouldn't have a clue," he said.
"All that's in this one is herbal extracts and carbohydrates that are totally natural."
Aggi said that UltraMask was perfectly legal in WA, and that his paraphernalia shop had never had a run-in with the law over the fluid.
"Those in mining turn a blind eye, because they realise if they don't, they'll end up with a workforce full of w...ers," he said .
University of Western Australia psychology professor Paul Skerritt disagreed, saying that even small traces of dope in workers' bodies could pose serious safety risks.
"The long half-life of it is precisely why it's insidiously dangerous in the workplace," Professor Skerritt said.
"Well, people take it to cloud their judgement, don't they?
"Certainly, I wouldn't want anybody working with me to be under the influence of marijuana, particularly if it's in a dangerous work capacity."
WA Worksafe Commissioner Nina Lyhne confirmed there was no safety legislation banning drug-affected staff from worksites, but that employers had a duty of care to ensure doped-up workers did not pose a hazard to themselves or their colleagues.
Mining and energy secretary for the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Gary Wood, confirmed some workers were using diuretics mainly for pre-appointment checks.
He doubted UltraMask or similar products would work under more rigorous "confirmatory" tests.
Peter Boyne, the state manager of Western Diagnostic Pathology, WA's largest occupational drug testing company, doubted diuretics could deliver the illicit sidestep that they promised.
"As an analyst, I can't see how it would have a big effect on testing," Mr Boyne said.
"The procedures are pretty strict in this because there's a lot at stake for the worker, the company and the tester.
"I'm not aware of any product that can get rid of or change the chemical structure of the residues.
"That would be pretty far-fetched."
In terms of drug test scams, Mr Boyne said he'd seen them all, from workers diluting urine samples with toilet water to those urinating on a bleach sample affixed to their fingertips before allowing the urine to drain off into the specimen jar.
However, he said all sampling sessions were now supervised to avoid such scenarios, toilet water was coloured blue to expose the dilution method and strict screening was in place to ensure adulterated samples were rejected.
Mr Boyne said screening could also detect if a urine sample had been diluted by diuretics or water.
"If we see a urine that is classed as diluted than we reject it and ask for another sample," he said.
A 72ml bottle of UltraMask costs $88 at Aggi's hydroponics shop in suburban Belmont, or up to $150 in WA's remote Goldfields.
"It's keeping my business going at the moment," Aggi said.
"If we weren't selling that product we'd be in dire straits."
WA Today
