Work Related Substance Abuse

Substance abuse occurs in many different forms: alcoholism, drug abuse, overeating, under-eating, and by using just about any type of behavior or pattern as a coping mechanism, instead of taking control of and responsibility for your own life. Workplace drug testing and alcohol testing exists to prevent drug abuse and alcoholism from occurring in or near a place of business by employees of the business. Pre screening tests are available for on-site testing in your work environment in order to provide efficiency and to keep all of your employees safe. While you are conducting business operations, you need to know that fraudulent or deceptive behavior is not a part of your employees’ actions.

Every year, thousands of employees cause work related fatalities and injuries due to their irresponsible drug abuse or alcoholism. In these cases, if the company has not taken necessary steps to prevent misconduct, the place of employment can be legally liable for these injuries and deaths. Lawsuits, corporate reputation, and business ethics are at stake. It is not advisable to only implement drug and alcohol testing after a problem has occurred. This is like closing the barn door after the horse has got out. Prevention is key, not only in avoiding hazardous situations, but also in protection of assets in case the company is sued for any reason whatsoever. Workplace drug testing must be regularly implemented. Attorneys have an incredible ability to take only partially enforced asset protection and turn it against you.

If you wish to make sure that on-the-job injuries do not occur, you can also help your employees by making sure that their place of employment is enjoyable, clean, creative and motivating. This is where marketing comes in. The work environment itself makes a difference in employee motivation. The positive interactions with coworkers and managers affect emotional stability. Your leadership skills also come into question if there is a high amount of substance abuse in your company, especially if you are not in a high hazard industry. This is where regular employee drug testing comes in handy and where you can begin to foster positive relationships with each member of your staff.

CMM Technology offers drug and alcohol testing equipment, including Lion breathalyser tests, and Oraline drug tests. We have experts available 24/7 to answer your call and address any questions which you may have.

 

Chronic Alcoholism

Intermittent alcoholism is destructive enough. However, chronic alcoholism can wreak havoc on many parts of your life. You can lose your spouse, your children, your home, your career, and even your ability to support yourself in any manner. Before your life crumbles into oblivion, it will first begin to destroy your body. Workplace drug and alcohol testing reveals this problem for what it really is: a problem. You cannot escape it. You must have a drug free home and a drug free workplace.

High amounts of homocysteine found in the blood will increase your chances of heart disease. When abnormally large amounts of homocysteine are in the bloodstream, this is called hyperhomocysteinemia. Chronic alcoholism brings about hyperhomocysteinemia, because the constant alcohol intake disrupts the enzymes vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, and intracellular folate, which determine how much homocysteine is regulated within the bloodstream.  What does this mean?

Chronic alcoholism increases your chance for heart disease, not simply through simple wear-and-tear, but through a direct chemical process. This is why chronic alcoholics are far more likely to die of heart disease than individuals who do not abuse drugs or alcohol and live a well-regulated life. Alcoholic employees who are not identified through drug testing can be a health risk to themselves.

Habitual and long-term alcoholism also affects cognitive processing and memory retention, even after the individual is detoxified and recovered from their chronic alcoholism. This affects work performance, which is why alcohol testing is often done in businesses. Brain white matter is directly affected by chronic alcoholism.  There is a distinct degradation which occurs and, due to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), this can be measured in detoxified alcoholic men versus a non-alcoholic control group. It was found that negative impacts on working memory, attention spans, and cognitive abilities were all directly correlated with chronic alcoholism. This means that, even after recovery from alcoholism, there is long-term or permanent damage done to the physical brain and the ability to process information or memories. Regular alcohol testing can prevent this permanent damage from entering your business.

Chronic alcoholism is common among homeless residents, especially in inner-city areas. It is also the cause of bartonellaquintana. Bartonellaquintana is a bacterium which causes endocarditis, angiomatosis, and trench fever. Endocarditis is an infection occurring within the heart, typically within one of the heart valves. Angiomatosis consists of groupings of clearly defined tumors comprised of large vascular spaces.

As you can see, chronic alcoholism may take its toll on your body long before it tears apart your family or results in job loss. It is a case of one disease leading to another, and then leading to another. Keep your business safe from this sickness by using regular drug and alcohol testing, such as the high quality Lion Alcoblow breathalysers available at CMM Technology. Contact us today: (+61) 1300 79 70 30.

History of Family Alcoholism

Alcoholism, more than any other drug, spreads itself biologically and genetically in very interesting ways. One of the reasons why other drugs rarely have the same effect is that hard core drug addicts cannot sustain jobs and rarely can sustain living conditions appropriate to maintaining a family and a genetic lineage. Alcoholism, on the other hand, is a very slow, colorful disease which can cause great destruction before you notice its effects. Alcohol testing is helpful, in that it provides a way to determine if someone is drunk at that moment in time. Workplace drug and alcohol testing takes on various forms, but in the end, it exists to stop the spread of this enticing and highly destructive disease.

A family history of alcoholism means several things. First of all, it means that you have a genetic history of missing vitamins and minerals. All alcoholics eat poorly and consume poorer quality of food than their non-alcoholic counterparts. As a result of this, vitamins and minerals normally found in a balanced diet are missing from their system and the longer this continues, the more depleted they become. When babies are conceived, they bear the genetic blueprint of both of their parents and, interestingly enough, they bear the current health of each of their parents. When children are born without a wide variety of these essential vitamins and minerals, then they are already predisposed toward becoming alcoholics. Even if both of their parents recover from alcoholism before their children are very old, they still maintain alcoholic tendencies, or supporting habits, which they had during their time of drunkenness. These supporting habits, combined with the child’s deficiency of certain nutrients, almost grow a pure alcoholic from scratch.

Unfortunately, a family history of alcoholism can be obtained through genetics and environment. Workplace drug and alcohol testing seeks to make this a diminishing disease, instead of a growing one. Alcohol testing facilitates decisions to change one’s own environment and habits, thus generating better habits, as well as a better genetic structure, in the next generation. We carry a variety of breathalyser tests, such as Lion Alcoblow breathalysers, Lion SD400 breathalysers, and Lion SD500 breathalyser devices. We also deliver a variety of drug tests, such as Oraline and Medix drug testing equipment. Our experts are standing by 24/7 to answer any questions you might have about using our testing equipment in your office or home.