One of the new mandates of the US Department of Transportation (DOT) that became effective August 1, 2001 is a requirement that employees subject to drug and alcohol testing under the Code of Federal Regulations 49, Part 40.61 must empty their pockets in order to allow the specimen collector to observe the contents and retain any items that could be used to adulterate a specimen until after the collection. This could include eye drops, inhalers, medications, cosmetics, etc. Other personal items such as keys, wallets, change, jewelry, etc., may be returned to the employee before collection of the specimen. There have been some inquiries as to whether this requirement constitutes an illegal invasion of privacy. Obviously, this is without question an invasion of privacy. However, one of the many unique aspects of the transportation industry (railroads, airlines, bus lines, etc.) is that the courts and the Congress have decided that public safety must be weighed against individual rights in order to safeguard against drug and alcohol use. In short, DOT has concluded that if it is legal to take your blood and make you provide a urine sample, then the incidental requirement to empty your pockets to guard against specimen tampering is not an unreasonably invasive measure. BNSF has advised that employees will not be required to empty their pockets for reasonable cause testing under company authority, and that BNSF officers will not instruct employees to empty their pockets for DOT authorized testing. Rather, those instructions are the responsibility of the collector acting on federal authority only. Of course, if the pockets are already empty when one arrives at the collection site, then much of the controversy is avoided.