What do you find when you drug test 57000 professional drivers?

In March 2016, the Brazilian government introduced new legislation that required all professional drivers to submit a hair sample for toxicological testing when joining or dismissed from haulage companies, or when obtaining or renewing their driving licence. The $100 test is paid for by the drivers themselves.

The aim of this new legislation was to reduce the number of accidents on Brazil’s roads and our Brazilian lab, Chromotox, has been integral to the testing process.

So what impact has the new law had in its first year, and what are the results of the world’s largest hair drug and alcohol testing scheme?

The method

Professional drivers applying for a new licence or renewing an existing one were directed to their nearest authorised collection location, where a hair sample was taken. These samples were sent to Chromatox for analysis, using methodologies compliant with ISO/IEC 17025 standards.

Tests checked for the presence of opiates, cannabinoids, amphetamines and cocaine, with enough hair collected to gain an accurate picture of the individual’s drug usage over the last three months. Over the first year of testing, 56,996 hair samples were collected and analysed.

The results

60.4% of the samples analysed were body hair – primarily from the legs (36%) and the arms (10.2%). Of the 56,996 hair samples tested, 1,684 – or 2.95% – indicated the presence of drugs.

Of the positive samples, the most commonly detected drug was, by far, cocaine (719 positives), benzoylecgonine (381), cocaethylene (223) and THC (164).

The results showed lower levels of positivity than in pre-legislation days, but were still higher than we had anticipated. The reason, we believe, is the lack of clarity in where the sample is to be collected from. In the UK, we advocate the use of head hair, which can be cut to the right length to look at the previous 3 months of drug use. Body hair, however, is tested in entire lengths without sectioning, meaning that results from body hair could date back further, potentially inflating the number of positive results.

What this means for Brazilian road safety

Hair drug testing has proved to be an efficient means of testing for the drugs identified by Brazilian law. Drivers have access to 8,000 government-installed testing hubs, so even those in the country’s most rural areas can abide by the new legislation.

With drivers paying the $100 fee for drug testing from their own pockets, it is likely that they will take more care than ever before to avoid positive tests – and with hair testing offering a longer detection window than urine or blood testing, the method presents an accurate picture of recent usage. However, it may be that drivers who know that their licence renewal is approaching choose to abstain for a few months pre-testing, which is why we recommended the addition of roadside testing to the Brazilian legislation.

In the first year a number of drivers refused to renew their professional licences, with the suggestion that they could switch from long distance driving (the only professional driving type currently regulated) to taxi or delivery driving. However, in a talk at the recent Society of Hair Testing event in Cardiff, Brazilian Minister for Transport Francisco Garonce claims the regulation will be extended to motorcyclists, followed by the entire population.

Finally, questions have been raised over collection methods and the difference in analysis between head hair and body hair. With body hair detecting drug usage over a longer period, it is possible the incidence of positive results could decrease if testing is confined to head hair only.

After its first year under Brazilian law, it is clear that hair testing is an accurate and effective method for mass driver – and with drivers themselves paying the high cost of the test, they are incentivised twofold to ensure that they stay clean: testing positive would not only waste money, but would also see them lose their livelihoods.

This said, a few months’ abstinence may allow drug users to pass the tests. With two and a half years between licence renewals, we believe that random roadside drug testing can reduce the number of positive results yet further.