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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain

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Speaker 1: stuff is Christian saga here. Let's say you are a

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Speaker 1: user of illicit drugs. You've applied for a job and

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Speaker 1: a drug tests required as a condition for employment. Even

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Speaker 1: in states where recreational marijuana is legal, employment can still

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Speaker 1: be denied to people who use it as well as

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Speaker 1: you know, of course harder drugs. You're thinking of borrowing

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Speaker 1: a buddy's urine maybe, or more extremely ordering clean urine

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Speaker 1: off the internet. But will that actually let you pass

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Speaker 1: the test? A lot depends on the collection in detection

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Speaker 1: methods used by the lab in question. Let's say you

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Speaker 1: successfully get the urine in the deposit cup within the

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Speaker 1: allotted time. Would you get away with it? Well? In

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Speaker 1: this case probably not. Reputable drug testing facilities followed Department

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Speaker 1: of Transportation guidelines which require collectors to establish a chain

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Speaker 1: of custody, which involves taking an immediate temperature reading of

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Speaker 1: the specimen. So while exterior proximity to your body might

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Speaker 1: keep the urine on the warm side, it's not likely

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Speaker 1: that it would have fallen anywhere near the required temperature range.

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Speaker 1: The DOT also requires that nothing should be taken inside

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Speaker 1: the collection area. No purses, backpacks, or outerwear pockets must

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Speaker 1: also be emptied. Sometimes workers also conduct a visual examination,

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Speaker 1: checking specifically the top of the belt line and sock areas,

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Speaker 1: because those are the most commonplaces people store fake and

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Speaker 1: borrowed urine. Apparently, but there's no limit to what people

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Speaker 1: will do to beat a drug test. Some will buy

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Speaker 1: powdered urine on the internet to mix with water. Most

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Speaker 1: facilities do tests in rest rooms without water access to

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Speaker 1: worth this in addition to not allowing people to take

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Speaker 1: any water inside, so they also try to add water

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Speaker 1: from the toilet tank. The end result is a bluish

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Speaker 1: green sample because d O T guidelines require that there's

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Speaker 1: blue tank water coloring in these toilet tanks for exactly

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Speaker 1: this purpose. Now, others may buy a product that claims

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Speaker 1: to cleanse your urine, but all it really does is diluted,

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Speaker 1: or they'll get some underwear that has a space to

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Speaker 1: hold the fake urine. It's not surprising, then, that some

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Speaker 1: facilities conduct observed testing, where a worker is present to

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Speaker 1: actually witness the deposit, either from the very beginning or

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Speaker 1: after a deceptive attempt has been made. Of course, if

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Speaker 1: the lab doesn't observe strict standards, it may still be

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Speaker 1: possible to game the system. Today's episode was written by

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Speaker 1: Aliya Hoyt, produced by Tristan McNeil and For more on

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Speaker 1: this and other topics, please visit us at how stuff

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Speaker 1: dot com