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Posted on Fri, Nov. 14, 2003 | |
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Report: Nearly 150 plant workers tested positive for drugs Associated Press YORK, Pa. - Nearly 150 workers and short-term contractors at two power plants tested positive for drugs and alcohol between July 1999 and December 2002, according to a published report. The majority of the 143 workers with positive drug tests at both Three Mile Island and the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station were short-term contractors, the York Daily Record reported Friday, citing Fitness-for-Duty reports from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The workers who tested positive showed traces in their systems of drugs including cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines, according to the newspaper. But the reports may not reflect all workers who tested positive for drugs or alcohol during that period. The NRC lacks a no-tolerance policy regarding drug screening, instead utilizing cutoff levels in determining which workers are abusing drugs and alcohol. The commission uses a 0.04 blood-alcohol ratio as an alcohol limit and a 100 ng/mL level for marijuana, about equal to smoking one joint in a week, the Daily Record said. "You might have a small amount of alcohol in your body, but based on evidence, it will not impair your ability to do the job effectively," Neil Sheehan, commission spokesman, told the newspaper. Under NRC policy, each power plant follows its own fitness-for-duty-program. The plants report to the commission twice a year the number of workers who tested positive for legal or illegal substances. Information from: York Daily Record |
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