FIRE COMMISSIONER SCOPPETTA ANNOUNCES RANDOM DRUG TESTING FOR THE FDNY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced today that on Monday, May 7, 2007, the New York City Fire Department will begin randomly drug testing more than 3,000 members of the FDNY Emergency Medical Service, which includes emergency medical technicians, paramedics and EMS officers.

The random drug-testing program was instituted for firefighters and fire officers in August 2004. Since then, 99.99% of the 5,525 individual tests were negative.

“Members of our EMS Command are faced with life-and-death decisions each day and have the unique ability to give New Yorkers a second chance at life, ” Commissioner Scoppetta said. “Since the implementation of our random drug testing policy, less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of the tests were positive for drugs. But we must be certain the work of any member is not impaired -- ensuring the safety of the general public and their own.”

Press Contact: Francis X. Gribbon & Tony Sclafani, (FDNY) (718) 999-2056

http://www.nyc.gov/fdny