Employers use a drug test to check for the presence of illegal drugs in urine.
If the urine sent to the lab contains too much water, the urine concentration is low. This will result in diluted urine drug test results, and the employer might ask you to repeat the drug test.
I’ve spent countless hours researching everything related to urine drug testing and a negative dilute test result.
Today, I’ll talk about what this urine looks like, what causes it, and whether a negative dilute result can be used.
What Diluted Urine Looks Like
The first sign that shows urine is diluted is the color. The rule is – the clearer the color, the more diluted the urine is.
Of course, this depends on how dark the color was, to begin with.
Generally, the color of diluted urine ranges from almost clear to a pale yellow. This is as far as the naked eye can determine if the urine is diluted.
Apart from the color, validity checks can be done to see if the urine specimen has been tampered with.
These checks are urine creatinine and specific gravity.
Urine Creatinine
Creatinine is a compound that’s made by the metabolism of creatine. The kidneys remove it through urine [1].
The normal range of creatinine in urine is 20 to 350 mg/dl [2]. If urine is diluted, the creatinine range is from 2 to 20 mg/dl.
Specific Gravity
Specific gravity (SG) shows the concentration of particles and urine density compared to water density in urine.
The normal SG ranges from 1.002 to 1.030. When SG is below 1030, the urine is diluted.
What Causes Urine To Be Diluted
If drug tests show a dilute test result, it’s not necessarily because the urine samples were messed with.
A dilute specimen can happen unintentionally as well.
Here are some of the most common reasons for a positive diluted drug test:
Drinking water in preparation for drug testing — In cases where there’s scheduled and not random drug testing, a person may drink a lot of water to ensure they can give a sample. This can lead to a dilute urine result in drug tests.
Drinking excess water or fluids for health reasons — Nowadays, many people are aware of the need to stay hydrated, so they usually drink a lot of water. Some people can even constantly have urine that’s diluted as a result of excess liquid intake.
Kidney problems — Some people have kidney problems, which can result in kidneys releasing too much water into the urine.
Taking medicine that has a diuretic effect — Prescription medications can increase urine production, which raises the chances of having a diluted result.
Of course, a person can also intentionally dilute the specimen, hoping to cheat urine drug tests.
Note: Neither of these methods guarantees a negative dilute result.
Can Diluted Drug Test Results Be Used?
Diluted test results are a problem for the employer because it’s difficult to determine if the employee is using drugs or not.
Diluted drug test results can have two outcomes:
Positive dilute drug test
Negative dilute drug test
If a drug testing process comes back with a positive drug test that shows urine dilution, this means the person has drugs in their system.
While the dilute urine samples were submitted, the lab still picked up the presence of drugs. This means the amount of water wasn’t enough to hide the consumption of the illegal substance, and the result comes back positive.
If there’s a negative dilute drug test result, the situation is a little different. A dilute negative drug test is such a problem because of the inconclusive drug test results.
The medical review officer doesn’t know if a person had any illegal substances in his or her system at the time of initial testing because the amount of fluids is too high.
This can mean the person was drinking excessive amounts of water to hydrate or because of other health reasons. It can also mean they took an excessive amount of liquids to disguise any drug levels visible on urine tests.
An employer can ask for another test to make sure there aren’t any false-negative results or that dilute specimen happened accidentally. They can also ask for a test that’s harder to cheat on, such as hair follicle or saliva testing.
Or, some employers will accept the negative dilute test result and not ask for anything else.
You can dilute urine for the EtG test. However, diluting urine for an EtG test is detectable and can result in the test being flagged as tampered or inconclusive. It’s not a reliable method to pass the test.
Can Diluted Urine Give a False Negative?
Yes, diluted urine can potentially give a false negative result in a drug or alcohol test. This happens because dilution lowers the concentration of substances in the urine, possibly below the detectable levels of the test.
Diluted Urine: Final Thoughts
A person who drinks a lot of water or other liquids is likely to test positive for a diluted urine sample. However, if the test is drug-free or showing drug metabolites depends on whether it’s a positive or a negative dilute.
A positive dilute means the person is using drugs, while a negative dilute means the person consumed a lot of liquids.
If urine color is clear or only slightly yellow, there’s a high chance it’s diluted. Otherwise, if the urine color is yellow, lab tests need to be done to establish if the urine is diluted or not.
If you have a drug test scheduled, make sure not to drink too much liquids to avoid testing positive for a dilute sample.
Lisa is a content writer, blogger, and entrepreneur. When she is not managing her business, Colonial Stores, Lisa spends most of her time researching about synthetic urine products to review. She loves sharing her learnings in a form of blogging that’s why she built a website to connect with many people. You can read more about me here.
Drinking water in preparation for drug testing — In cases where there’s scheduled and not random drug testing, a person may drink a lot of water to ensure they can give a sample. This can lead to a dilute urine result in drug tests.
