Blood Drug Testing

Nicotine Saliva test come out positive in a nonsmoker twice?

I had to be tested for work insurance purposes, I do not smoke. I never did. Nor do I live with a 2nd hand smoker. I took the saliva test twice and it came out positive both times. HELP!! I don't smoke and now my work health insurance may be cut off. Any suggestions?

Public Comments

1. Did you ever live with a second hand smoker or were you exposed to heavy second hand smoke at any time over the past ten years? Nicotine can actually take a full TEN YEARS to get out of your system, even if it was just secondhand smoke, which may explain the positive result... however, if you were never exposed, that's obviously not the issue. Secondly, substances in diet can cause false positive nicotine tests. Vegetarians especially have higher rates of false positives than others; broccoli, garlic, radishes, almonds, horseradish, cabbage, and mustard can all contain nicotine-like ingredients that can cause a false positive on a test. Do you regularly eat any of these foods? Did you eat any of them right before the test? People who work with certain metals can also be exposed to a chemical that causes a false nicotine blood test. This includes electroplaters and work with precious metals. This is going to be tough, because insurance policies typically aren't very sympathetic or have much wiggle room. In fact, you may need an insurance lawyer to help you out here; at this point, it's basically your word against the insurance company's. However, I'd start with this: Call your insurance company, find out if they ever have an "appeal" process in the event of a false positive test. If they do, follow whatever procedure you may need to submit an appeal. If there's no formal process for this, here's what I'd suggest: 1. Find out which company / brand of saliva test your insurance company used. I'd hunt around for contact info, and call the testing facility. See if you can get any info regarding percentages or rates of false positives, and any information they may have regarding substances that can cause a false positive. You may need to tell them you're looking into obtaining a test kit yourself for business purposes in order for them to willingly provide this information. If you can, have the testing company send you this info in writing (they probably already have brochures with all of this info). I'd submit this info to the insurance company, via certified mail, and ask for an appeal. Threaten to get a lawyer if you need to. You may also be able to obtain some really useful information regarding nicotine testing and false positives from the two major labs in the U.S. - LabCorp and Quest. They both have 800 numbers for customer service & patient education. 2. Find out from your insurance company, if you can, what test score is the lowest they consider to be positive. For example, many insurance companies don't consider anything below a 1.0 to be positive, because even though smoking can be detected at 0.5, it's too risky for false positives. If your insurance company is using numbers below the 1.0 scale, their tests may be too sensitive and you may have a case based on that. However, that may require a lawyer to convince the insurance company they're wrong here. Here's an article that has many helpful points, but it is VEEERY long!! http://www.aaimedicine.org/journal-of-insurance-medicine/jim/1985/016-02-0014.pdf Otherwise, the only thing I can really recommend is consulting an attorney; they deal with things like this from insurance companies pretty often, and can probably recommend more loopholes than anyone else can; however, I know that's an expensive route... Good luck!!