Construction sites and companies throughout Connecticut will stop work for periods this week to focus on addiction prevention, treatment and awareness as the industry sees high rates of opioid use and overdoses, according to www.wnpr.org.
Although Connecticut doesn’t collect industry-specific data, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health examined overdose data by occupation from 2011 through 2015. In a 2018 report, experts found construction and extraction workers accounted for more than 24% of all opioid-related deaths among the working population. It also showed these workers are, on average, six times more likely to suffer a fatal opioid overdose than other workers.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office projects 1,088 people will die from an overdose in Connecticut this year—a majority of them from opioids.
A weeklong statewide campaign, Safety Stand-Down on Opioid Awareness and Prevention, launched in Hartford, Conn., Oct. 28 to address the issue.
“Deaths on the job site from opioid overdoses are quickly approaching the totals of the other categories alone,” says Kyle Zimmer, director of health and safety at International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478. “Working men and women are dying every day while silently struggling. It’s time to get uncomfortable, it’s time to reach out and help those struggling and point them in a direction so that recovery and a healthy productive life can be had.”
The campaign will run through Nov. 1.
