Study links opioid deaths to workplace injuries

[DonViejo]

By Felice J. Freyer GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 08, 2018

Relying on skill and strength to raise up skyscrapers and spruce up homes, construction workers routinely face difficult and dangerous working conditions. Now a Massachusetts study has identified an overlooked hazard linked to their jobs: fatal opioid overdoses.

The report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that nearly a quarter of overdose deaths in a five-year period occurred among people, mostly men, who work in construction. Farmers and fishermen also had higher-than-average rates of overdose deaths.

The common factor: Workplace injuries occur frequently in these occupations.

The report, released Wednesday, paints a disturbing picture of workers hurt on the job, taking addictive painkillers, and needing those painkillers to keep working at jobs they would otherwise lose.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2018/08/08/study-links-opioid-deaths-workplace-injuries/RL0MF2br6JHDDgyiPpMYfM/story.html

[zanana1]

1. This is so true.

I don't care what anybody says; when you're in excruciating pain, you will take an opiod pain killer. If you need those painkillers for more than a week, you're hooked. Any kind of manual labor can injure someone.
Why can't science come up with effective, non-opiod pain relief? (And please don't say something like Advil in higher doses...it doesn't work).

[spinbaby]

2. Also, why are people in pain working?

An injured worker should be able to take time off to heal and not take opioids to keep working.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. In construction, if you don't work, you don't get paid.

ETA: Which is a glib and not entirely accurate thing to say. Some union members have an account that gets paid into, often called a vacation fund or Christmas fund, that gets paid out at the end of every year. It's a small deferred benefit that is meant to stand in for PTO. But because it's deferred, it can be difficult to take time off in the moment and lose pay for that week.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Source please?

"If you need those painkillers for more than a week, you're hooked."

[Mariana]

8. It's a lie.

A commonly believed one, apparently, but a lie. My mom had a painful surgery a couple years ago, and my dad hid her hydrocodone because he believed that lie and was afraid she'd get addicted. I was pissed and called her doctor. He called my dad and gave him a talking to. My mom got her medication.

ETA: My mom didn't get addicted.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Tramadol is one non-opioid pain killer.

You can get a mild relaxing feeling from it also, if you take several at a time.
But it is listed as a controlled substance.

there is a couple more drugs like that, can't think of them right now.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Glad to see this is getting some attention. If you have an injury or a surgery as a construction

worker, there's a lot of pressure to get back to work ASAP, because if you don't work, you don't get paid. If you take Thursday and Friday off to get arthroscopic knee work done, you better feel good by Monday. But maybe your knee isn't quite ready to go back; maybe it needs one more day. But you can't take one more day, so you take one of the pills they gave you. It works, so you work 100% on your knee. But on Tuesday, your knee is sore again. So you take another pill.

It's a bigger problem than simply access, of course. The way this country treats pain, views the nature and virtue of work and pits people against the economic system all contribute to the opioid crisis. But as I say, I'm glad this part of it is getting some attention.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I know a 65 yo nurse who was injured on the job and suffered botched surgery.

She is in perpetual pain, screaming. She was on opioids and they were stopped just for that reason. Not addiction, but concern of a fatal overdose.

[Ron Obvious]

9. Which is why the opioid epidemic is largely a US phenomenon

Other developed societies have decent safety nets in which there isn't the pressure for workers to immediately go back to physical labour because they won't get paid otherwise. Also, our health insurance would rather pay for cheaper opiates than for expensive physical therapy.