My husband successfully went through the HIMS program and is now a peer monitor for pilots (his airline requested him to be one). He has jumped through all the hoops and has been in compliance since day 1 of signing his HIMS agreement. He is six years sober as of this week. He works for an overseas carrier and their avmed department has always done the peth test collection and sent it to USDTL here in the states. All his tests have been negative. As of Covid, majority of flying is grounded. The company requested him to do a Peth test a few weeks ago. On the USDTL site he found a collection site in our area. Fast forward to this week, the test came back at 93ng. ALL other tests have been negatives (urine, ctg) and I KNOW he has had ZERO alcohol. The person administering the test was not familiar with the test and kept having to ask her supervisor how to do it. It just made us wonder if her inexperience with administering the test caused a positive result. So my husband and I decided to watch the official collection procedures on the USDTL site, and now we can see there are glaring problems on how she did the test. Every step of the way she did it incorrectly. My husband went to the same testing site yesterday, had them redo the test BUT do a blood draw and also do a hair test. He also did another Peth test (dry blood spot) today with a different company USDTL recommended from their site. Today as well he did a blood draw for a Peth test through Labcorp. So 4 Peth tests total in under 2 weeks, plus the add on of the hair sample.
USDTL - will be responsible for 3 more additional tests. The blood draw and hair taken yesterday by the first company and the dry blood spot taken today by a different company
Labcorp - will be responsible for one blood draw test taken today.
There are major problems that courts and companies are relying on just this one test and throwing everything else to the wayside. Since hair / nails go back 3 months you would think that this would invalidate the Peth.
Even on USDTL site it has the slogan "Alcohol Testing Think 3-3-3" which means using different testing methods like Urine, Blood, Hair / Nails for evaluation.
My husband told me that the other recommended USDTL company he went to this morning, he had to walk the woman on how to do the test! Unbelievable. We are both upset at the ignorance of the people collecting do the dry blood spot test. And mind you this USDTL recommending these companies. I think we should all carefully document how the test is done each and every time. If there is enough data then hopefully we can see a pattern.
Upon evaluating the USDTL instruction video, why is the tester / patient washing their hands and then touching other papers and pen, this sets the test up for contamination. Administrative stuff should all be done first, then wash hands, then isopropyl pad, then the lancet.