C***  Hello! I would love to answer that for you! A “diluted specimen” is a urinalysis that has a higher than average water content. In most cases, this means that your client drank too many fluids, usually water,  before they went to take their drug screen. Drinking too many fluids before a drug screen may or may not be intentional. Sometimes, the specimen donor is afraid they will not be able to provide a urine sample for their drug test and therefore drink a lot of fluids ahead of time. We also see more dilute specimens in the summertime, and in industries where employees have to hydrate more. There are even medical conditions that can cause a urine drug screen to be diluted. A negative dilute is still considered a negative and not a violation. There should be no violation consequences for a negative dilute drug test result but most of our substance abuse professionals will require the donor to retest. A negative dilute is what the lab reports  when the specimen is diluted enough to possibly miss detection of a substance in the sample. A positive dilute result refers to a specimen that has tested positive for a drug or its metabolite, and while the urine sample was diluted it was still able to detect the given drug.  Whether the dilution of the urine sample was intentional or accidental, a retest for a positive dilute is likely a good idea as well. If you have more questions, please call us at 618-505-0364.