Accountability is necessary to prevent corruption and requires both the provision of information and justification for actions. What was done and why? Accountability also necessitates consequences-the ability of outside actors to punish and sanction those who commit the misconduct Without these constraints corruption is inevitable.
Disrupted Physician 
Just to be clear, many airlines are imposing these biomarker tests on pilots that have undergone substance abuse treatment and applying them to Last Cjance Agreements…i.e. if you test positive, you’re to be terminated. The airlines too have nbeen bamboozeled into believing these tests are conclusive. Some airlines also doing so without even MRO review.
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Yes and the same groups are involved. Skipper is involved in the airline programs. Skipper is a convicted felon. He was convicted of theft and possession of controlled substances in November of 1990 in Yamhill County, Oregon and prior to that he was in trouble with the Oregon Medical Board for illegal use of controlled substances from at least 1982 to 1986.
See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/23/busted-for-heroin-when-pilots-fly-high.html
They are using the same junk gadgetry such as SCRAM and Digital Photo Breathalyzer.
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I am one of the victims of these LDT tests that lack forensic credibility. My 30+ year unblemished aviation career ended by a non-negative PEth result, incorrectly intrepreted as a relapse by my former employer, and the test result not even subjected to MRO review.
My former airline believes the PEth test “will give the license plate number of the car you drove home from the bar in”…Their exact words. This in light of the fact that the PEth test has been minimally researched and peer reviewed and has never been subject to the rigorous FDA approval process.
I want to point out that the largest pilot union in the U.S. the Air line Pilots Association (ALPA) has been either unwilling or unable to prevent the Etg and PEth tests from being used in pilot abstinence testing monitoring programs. These LDT biomarker tests are recommended for abstinence monitoring testing by the FAA Aeromedical Division. A non-negative test result will almost certainly result in the pilots medical certificate being withdrawn (hardly a clinical application of an LDT test). Compounding this is that the airline (the employer) will then use the same questionable test result( in isolation) to terminate the pilot or at the very least require the pilot to enter an extended treatment program at the airlines chosen facility.
“Round up the usual suspects”….Talbott has a program just for pilots !! How convenient.
So one of the largest, well funded, politically powerful unions in the United States, ALPA, has not been able to control or inhibit the use of these tests that lack scientific credibility. It appears that wherever there exists a large differential in power, these tests proliferate and thus fuel the “new paradigm”.
I appreciate your work and dedication..ML !!
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Would you like to do a guest blogpost representing pilots? How did they convince airlines to accept this? I know Dupont and Bensinger managed several airlines in their EAP drug testing management business ( TWA and American Airlines I believe) as well as the FAA. Does the FAA administer the EAP and drug testing?
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ML:
I responded to you via email about a guest blogpost. I’m interested in this. We have emailed over the past year or so. ( you reviewed a Lab Data Pkg for me) Please contact me again through my gmail address.
Thanks..
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Email me at MLLangan@protonmail.com
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