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MAKING IT YOUR BUSINESS
ADDICTION HITS HOME CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AMONG HIGHEST WITH INJURY-RELATED PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLER DEATHS
A little over a year ago, the March 5, 2018, edition of Time magazine was the first issue in their 95-year history entirely devoted to one topic. That topic: The opioid crisis. According to Time’s report, it is the worst addiction epidemic in // AVALY U.S. history. SCARPELLI “In 2016 alone, nearly 64,000 GUEST COLUMNIST Americans died from drug overdoses—roughly as With partners Job-Site Safety Institute and Advocates for Human Potential, many as were lost during the entire NAHB has developed resources to expand on what government and health Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars care are doing to create “a proactive approach to this crisis with knowledge combined.” and without stigma.” It’s a tough topic. Opioid overdosNAHB’s program is called Making It Your Business. Because, unfortunately, es now claim more lives than car it is our business. The construction sector experiences the highest amount accidents each year. And if you are of drug/opioid-involved overdose deaths, followed by extraction workers, not personally affected, the stats can food preparation/serving, health care practitioners, health care support, and still feel far personal care/service (Centers for Disease Control and removed from According to NAHB data, over Prevention, August 2018). every day life. As noted in NAHB’s opioid information, the impact on half the people who died as a businesses can be significant, including loss of producBut given the staggering result of an opioid overdose tivity and increased healthcare expenses. Employees proportions of in the grip of substance abuse miss almost 50% more had at least one job-related this ongoing time from work compared to their peers. In these situainjury. crisis, it is likely tions, turnover is high and employee morale is low. that many of us The connecting force across industry sectors, age, demographics, race and have employees or coworkers caught gender? Chronic pain. Most people who died of an opioid overdose were in this terrible struggle. diagnosed with chronic pain within a year of their death. Another shared gateEarlier this year, the National way—most people addicted to opioids began taking prescription opioids, usuAssociation of Home Builders (NAHB) ally prescribed after an injury. According to NAHB data, over half the people held a webinar on the opioid crisis who died as a result of an opioid overdose had at least one job-related injury. explaining the basics of the problem Addressing the disease of substance abuse in the workplace can seem overand outlined resources available to our members (NAHB.org/opioids). See ADDICTION on page 13 //
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