NATS Drugs tests - banned substances etc
 

All,

When I attended my medical back in November, the Doctor explained to me that I had to be careful with any medication I take as a lot of things will result in negative results from drugs tests. Its now the time of year that I need to rely on hayfever medicines (the eyes are itching already!) and I want to make sure that I do not start taking anything that will result in me failing any tests. My coach is also suggesting I take some supplements to build up my strength in the gym - again, I want to be sure I am not taking anything that will cause a problem.

Does NATS follow a certain set of tests that can be viewed anywhere? Or is there a list anywhere of what substances are banned that I can check against?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

lol wonder why NATS brought random drug tests in.

If only they did it five years ago

TAAATS - thanks for the advice, although I remember it specifically being mentioned that you should be careful with hayfever tablets - I think that some have 'additions' to the normal anti-histamines that may not be allowed.

In relation to the gym supplements - I certainly wouldn't touch steroids - the supplements suggested are just protein/creatine/glutamine supplements - all natural substances found in the body anyway so I cant see that the would be banned but better safe that sorry!

Scotliveit - good to see you still have the chip on your shoulder :ok:

Consult the CAA Medical Branch regarding prescriptions, they're very helpful and will always advise you and make alternative suggestions if necessary.

As for your "coach" at the gym, disregard his "advice" ( :rolleyes::ugh:) and never take any supplements, you don't need them regardless of what he/she may say, unless your GP recommends them.

Supplements sold by gyms are essentially a significant addition to the owners income, on average the mark up is around 500%.

As an ordinary non professional sports person you simply don't need them, they do nothing for you that a bit of extra hard work on the equipment won't do for you, never use them unless advised to do so by your GP or better qualified person (rarely, if ever, found in gyms).

Basically, it's crap in, crap out.

For hayfever consider the drug fexofenadine (trade name Telfast). It's approved by the CAA for flight crew use so would probably be OK for Atcos two.

Be very careful with Creatine and some of those miracle "diet" supplements, as they can aggravate the digestive/excretive systems, and combined with shift work (which also knocks the crap out of your systems.....hee hee, nice pun), you could find yourself with a nice case of acute diarrhea or IBS.

Thanks for all your advice! I relation to the gym supplements - I hadn't decided to definitely take any, I will take all your feedback on board, I just wanted to get it checked out anyway, the more important thing is the hayfever medicines.

Niknak suggested above contacting the CAA medical branch - is this something that I can do before starting with NATS? (I am not due at college until July) I cannot find any specific details for this on the CAA website other than just general advice. Is there anyone I can contact at NATS? Is the medical department at NATS able to give this advice? If anyone has a contact number for them I would appreciate it greatly!

A lot of hay fever tablets are no good. I use Claratyn which is CAA approved.

The NATS Occupational Health Department are very helpful and I believe that they have a factsheet that lists the drugs you can and can't take. They are based at Swanwick so you could write or you could phone HR and ask for an email or phone number for OHS.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Since when did NATS do drug testing?

NATS introduced a drugs & alcohol policy for all staff about two and a half years ago the policy includes drug/alcohol testing in the event of an incident or a manager having just cause. This policy includes testing for TATCs at their medical and in the first year if I recall correctly. I think that for qualified ATCOs there is legislation that requires testing in the event of an incident anyway and that has been for sometime.

I'm no doctor so I'm only talking from experience but I know that some protein supplements can increase the amount of protein in the urine which then gets flagged up as a potential kidney problem. It can then be ruled out but it only delays the whole process and causes uneccessary worry.

sports substances are fine, protein, creatine etc..... i use them myself and know other atcos that use them also... no problems for a class 1 medical.

unless youre going down the roads of steroids: dinabol, stanazolol,drostalonone, deca or equidren then you may encounter some frowns.

W