Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration January 25, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In the Federal Register notice of April 13, 2004 (69 FR 19644), the Department of Health and Human Services (``HHS'' or ``Department'') published final changes to the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. These changes established specimen validity testing standards and reporting procedures for Federal agency urine specimens collected under the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. These changes to the Mandatory Guidelines were subject to further comment only on the creatinine criterion that is part of the requirement to report a urine specimen as substituted because the Department based this criterion on information received after the comment period on the proposed changes published on August 21,2001 closed. After reviewing the comments received regarding this issue, the Department has concluded that the 2 mg/dL creatinine criterion established in the April 13, 2004, Federal Register notice (69 FR 19644) for a substituted specimen is the appropriate cutoff concentration to use for reporting a urine specimen as substituted.