The Department of Transportation, and the US Coast Guard through the Department of Homeland Security take random urinalysis of those under their jurisdiction in order to keep safe the American public from reckless activity within our global transportation reach.
This is the story of Simone Solomon, a Chief Cook aboard a vessel that shipped cars and vehicles. She was stopped for a random urinalysis in Dubai, United Arab Eremites. This urine sample sat in the desert for approximately 7-10 days, in non-refrigerated conditions. It was shipped to a facility that tests samples, and it came back with a Specific Gravity and Creatinine level which were outside of the level of normal under 49 C.F.R. 40.93.
The expert for the U.S. Coast Guard mislead the trial by stating that urinary creatinine will not degrade in temperatures unless they were 300 degrees Celsius.
The court then adopted his scientific inaccuracies:
Ms. Solomon's credentials, under that order, were suspended for a period of 14 months. The United States Coast Guard was dissatisfied with the trial courts decision, and has filed a notice of appeal. When contacted, the United States Coast Guard states that they were dissatisfied with the punishment of a 14 month suspension, and were appealing upon those grounds.
Ms. Solomon has cross appealed, arguing that urine does not need to be placed into a volcano for the creatinine to degrade, and that her urinary creatinine could have sufficiently degraded at temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
This appeal remains pending.
Read the Whole Decision at:
http://www.uscg.mil/alj/decisions/2013/SR-2013-07_Solomon.pdf
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