At One Madison, a skyscraper under construction in NY, workers face dangers daily: live wires, electrical sprinklers, heavy machinery. City and federal officials visited the site recently to give a presentation on safety, but not on how to avoid falls or injuries. They were showing workers how to prevent the biggest cause of death in the industry: drug overdose.
Construction workers already had the highest number of on-the-job deaths of any industry in the United States. They are now more likely to die from overdoses than those in any other occupation, finds a new analysis from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This stems in part from addictive medications prescribed to workers to manage pain from injuries, which are common due to physical work.
It's an issue the industry has struggled to manage for more than a decade. The presentation at One Madison in November was an example of how the industry has begun to address the issue in recent years. Unions now employ full-time addiction and mental health specialists, and workplace safety experts have increasingly had to focus on preventing overdoses.
The CDC study found that there were more than 162 overdose deaths per 100,000 construction workers in 2020. The data suggested that construction workers were about 16 times more likely to die from an overdose than from a work-related injury.
Most construction workers are men, who are generally more likely than women to die from overdoses. Hispanics are overrepresented in the industry and have a rising overdose death rate overall.
Construction workers also typically do not receive paid sick leave, which could make opioids an option for quickly returning to work. And work tends to be cyclical, raising the pressure to work whenever possible.
Brendan Loftus, who provides addiction services for the Elevator Builders International Union, said the union had begun to notice the overdose problem was becoming serious in 2015, when it lost five members to overdoses in 11 months, and that the problem had only gotten worse.
“If we had lost five members to on-the-job deaths, people would be protesting in the streets,” Loftus said. “But no one wanted to talk about this, because it was a dirty secret.”
One of the first members Loftus helped with recovery was Michael Cruz, a 25-year-old construction worker who had an opioid addiction. One day in October 2016, Cruz bought construction materials for an upcoming job. He had recently come out of a 30-day rehab program and was eager to get back to work.
Later that night, he was found in his aunt's apartment in NY, dead of an apparent overdose, lying next to a bag with the measuring tape and other supplies he had purchased that night.
Cruz's addiction began with painkillers he had been prescribed after a car accident left him with persistent back pain. His toxicology report showed traces of codeine, fentanyl and heroin in his system.
Part of the challenge facing the industry is stigma. Lizbeth Rodas, Cruz's sister, said she and her family were unsure about telling people that she had died of an overdose. They chose to tell the truth.
“After that, a lot of people admitted to having problems,” he said, including union colleagues.
Increasingly, construction companies are stocking job sites with Narcan, a brand of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.
By: J. EDWARD MORENO
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7131350, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-02-26 19:18:02
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