“Helping People Help People”: The Philosophy of Modern Site Safety
Interviewer: Louis, you’ve recently formalised your internal purpose as “Helping People Help People.” That sounds more like a non-profit mission than a drug-testing company. Why that specific phrasing?
Louis Foster: It’s because I believe that it’s a reflection of what we actually do on the ground every day. Here at Sober Check, it isn’t just about shipping boxes of plastic cups to our clients, we’re thinking about the end user at each stage. We are empowering a Site Manager to ensure their team goes home at night. We are helping a Recruitment Consultant place a driver in a large machine, confident they aren’t impaired.
When you look at a client like a District Health Board or an addiction treatment centre, “Helping People Help People” is literal. We provide tools such as the OneScreen 10 urine kit or the Lifeloc breathalysers that allow a clinical practitioner to guide an addict back to sobriety. We provide the “objective truth” in a situation where people are often struggling and looking for a way out. Our purpose is to be the reliable foundation that these “helpers” stand on.
Interviewer: You mention “Objective Truth.” How do you address the sceptics who say drug testing is just a punitive “Gotcha” game for workers?
Louis Foster: That is a misconception we work hard to correct. Modern workplace testing isn’t about questioning employees about what they got up to over the weekend, outside of work. It’s more about discerning how these choices might present as a safety risk on the worksite on a Monday morning. Alcohol is still the most prevalent drug of abuse because it’s legal and accessible. But unlike THC in a urine test – which might stay in your system for weeks – alcohol testing correlates much more closely to impairment.
We promote the Lifeloc LT7 precisely because it gives a qualitative positive or negative result and can be followed up with a quantitative level result. It’s verified to the 2019 standard, is a high-quality and accurate unit that managers can rely on. So it’s not a “guess.” It tells the HSEQ manager: “This person is currently a risk to themselves and others.” We aren’t the “Drug Police”; we are the “Safety Guardrails.” By identifying a risk early – whether it’s hydration, alcohol or meth – we are preventing a tragedy, not just enforcing a policy.
Importantly, I really want to mention that it doesn’t matter if the substance or thing you’re taking is legal, prescribed, illegal or recreational. Whatever it might be, it is a simple question that needs to be answered; what safety risk does it create and how is it being addressed. This is why it’s not about playing ‘gotcha’ with employees who are being drug tested. It’s about how to minimise risk in the workplace through a process-driven mitigation strategy.
Interviewer: Western Australia is a major focus for Sober Check. What are the unique challenges of the WA market, especially regarding “Lizard Urine” and sample tampering?
Louis Foster: (Laughs) The “Lizard Urine” problem is real. On a FIFO site in the middle of nowhere, there is a lot of pressure to “pass” a test. We’ve seen everything from people taping bladders of fake urine to their inner thighs, or trying to microwave samples to hit that 32–38°C range.
This is why our training and our products are also focused on Adulterant Detection. Our Medix ProSplit and SCOUT Scan urine drug screen cups include panels that show “indicators of cheating” such as pH levels, nitrates, and creatinine. If someone is a “lizard” or has a fever, our cups catch it instantly. We educate our clients that “observed testing” or “oral fluid” is often the best defence against this. While observed urine testing must meet strict privacy-versus-safety risk thresholds, an oral fluid test like the STEALTH Flow, can be conducted right in front of you, making it very hard to tamper with covertly.
Interviewer: How has the Iran conflict and the subsequent oil shock changed the conversation around workplace safety for your clients?
Louis Foster: When margins are thin and fuel is costing $3+ a litre, the cost of a “total loss” incident on a mine site or a construction zone is catastrophic. If someone is injured, or worse, killed, because an impaired driver fell asleep or lost concentration due to dehydration, that could bankrupt a subcontractor in this economy.
We are seeing clients move toward a “Workplace Wellness” model. They aren’t just doing “Drug Testing”, they’re doing “Holistic Health Monitoring.” This includes hydration testing with the MX3 and wellness testing, such as cardiac markers with the i-Stat device. If you can spend $15 on a test to prevent a multi-million dollar tragic incident, that’s just good business. In a recessionary environment, “zero harm” is a financial imperative, not just a CSR slogan.
Interviewer: You’ve spoken about the “ED Triage” application of the OneScreen 10. That seems a long way from a mine site.
Louis Foster: It’s actually where our work becomes most “purposeful.” This solution applies particularly to acute inpatients or detox units, once an overdose patient becomes conscious, but time is still critical in terms of assessing the nature of any drug-induced effects and clinicians don’t have time to wait 24 hours for a lab report.
Using OneScreen 10, they can get an instant screen for the “Big 10”, which includes Methadone and Oxycodone. If the person is severely impaired, the ED doctor can immediately suspect something like GHB or GBL, which don’t show up on standard screens but have very specific treatment protocols. That 60-second test can guide a life-saving medical intervention. That is the ultimate example of “Helping People Help People.”
Interviewer: Finally, what is the “Louis Foster” vision for Sober Check in Australia over the next two years?
Louis Foster: We want to be the partner of choice for employers across Australia and New Zealand, bringing real solutions and understanding to your D&A programme and enhancing workplace safety in both countries.
We will continue to build our Sober Check Brands to control quality and pricing for our clients. We will lead the market on the 2023 Standard transitions. But ultimately, we want to be known as the team that actually cares about the person at the end of the swab. We want to make Australasian workplaces safer, one objective result at a time.
