What happens if you dilute your urine

There are two types of dilute specimens: positive and negative. With a positive diluted drug test, the laboratory picks up the presence of an illegal substance despite its dilution. With a negative diluted test result, it is unknown whether the person had any drugs in their system because there are two possible conclusions.

First, the participant may be drug-free but simply consume a lot of fluids. Second, the participant may engage in drug use but successfully disguise this through dilution. Your email address will not be published. A dilute specimen is a urine sample that has higher water content than the average specimen, which minimizes the drug levels visible in the urine.

Sometimes dilution is intentional, but it can happen accidentally as well. If the drug levels do not reach a certain cut-off point established by the laboratory, the specimen will not be marked positive for the drug even if it is detected.

Below we explore what causes diluted drug test results and how you can prevent specimens from being diluted. Most diluted drug test results are produced unintentionally by the participant.

This can occur when an applicant consumes an excessive amount of fluid, diluting the concentration of urine in the sample. However, it is also possible for specimens to be diluted on purpose by someone who hopes to cheat the test and hide their drug use. But they can only work effectively when steps have not been taken to avoid a positive test result. Below are tips to help ensure a clean sample, plus four of the most common methods used to avoid positive detection:.

Use first morning urine, as it is typically the most concentrated and best for detecting the presence of drugs. Have your child hand you the urine-filled cup immediately after collection. It should be warm to the touch. Don't leave the sample unattended until you have the final test result and are sure you won't be sending it to the lab for confirmatory testing. So, in short, a negative dilute result means that the donor was exceptionally hydrated at the time of the test; and the urine, and everything else it contained, was diluted.

It may be totally innocent on the part of the employee or it could be they were attempting to disguise drug use by intentionally flooding their system with water.

But, with an eye on both fairness and objectivity, the caution here is to take a deep breath and not make assumptions. So, how do you as an employer with a DFWP program respond to a negative dilute result? Start by checking your DFWP policy. What direction or guidance does your policy provide? DOT gives employers the option of either treating the result as a negative or requiring that the employee submit another urine specimen.