Random drug testing leaves some stalled

A little-known phobia is costing some people their jobs.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tom Smith worried he was in for trouble on a Wednesday morning last November, when a supervisor pulled the assembly line worker aside and told him to the report to the factory nurse's station.
There, with a plastic urine specimen cup in hand, 40 ounces of water sloshing around inside him and the nurse waiting expectantly, Smith says he spent three hours straining to do what most people barely think about. But when the time allotted for the random drug test was finished, the cup was still empty. And Smith was out of a job.
The story sounds like the makings of a bad joke. But Smith and workers like him say they are tired of being the punch line.
Their problem, a little-known phobia known as paruresis or shy bladder syndrome, isn't new. But the intensely personal malady is getting some unwelcome exposure, an unforeseen consequence of widespread workplace drug testing.
Employers conduct about 45 million drug tests each year, the vast majority by collecting a urine sample. Some workers object, but inability to fill a specimen cup is rarely the issue.
Here's the problem
Then there are people like Smith, who says he was fired from his job at a Caterpillar Inc. generator plant in Griffin, Ga., last fall because his failure to provide a urine specimen was labeled a refusal to take the test.
"You tell me I have three hours to urinate and I'm going to lose my job, hey man, I'm frozen. I can't do anything," said Smith, who lives in Pike County, Ga., about an hour south of Atlanta and worked at the plant for more than three years.
A Caterpillar spokeswoman, who confirmed Smith is a former employee, said she could not comment on the situation because of privacy concerns. But she defended the testing program.
"The safety of our employees is our primary concern," said the spokeswoman, Lori Porter.
Employers often regard such situations as a refusal to take the test, workers and advocates say. Some employers have ordered workers to undergo examination by a doctor to determine if blockage of the urinary tract might be to blame.
Widespread problem
But experts say paruresis is psychological, not physical, and that it is far more widespread than most people realize.
"The bladder's full, they're sweating bullets, but they can't open up" the muscle that allow urination to take place, said Dr. Michael Chancellor, a professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh.
For some people, the answer is just to go into a bathroom stall. But more serious cases can require therapy and are not easily solved, Chancellor said.
That has led to a host of problems as drug testing has become widespread, said Steven Soifer, president of the International Paruresis Association.
"I get an e-mail a week or a call a week" from people unable to urinate for a drug test, said Soifer, an associate professor of social work at the University of Maryland in Baltimore who has contended with paruresis since childhood.
Even in situations where employers are accommodating, workers with shy bladder say the phobia can make the job stressful.
In his job as a marine engineer on New York's Staten Island Ferry service, Michael Capparo has long been subject to spot drug tests. But he's so worried about not being able to provide a specimen that he carries a catheter in his work bag every day and leaves another in his locker just in case.
When he was called for his last test, about 3 years ago, Capparo says he inserted a catheter himself to ensure he could provide a sample.
"To be honest with you, every time I leave the door to go to work, I worry about being tested," said Capparo.