Safety Awakening – “Drugs & Alcohol Can Wreak Your Program”
July 11, 2014 No Comments“Drugs & Alcohol Can Wreak Your Program”
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There is an association between drug and alcohol use and workplace injuries. The AIHA says –
“Drug or inappropriate alcohol use may simply be a marker of risk-taking behavior. As a rule, men more frequently use drugs than do women. In addition, single people are more likely to use drugs than are married individuals. Some industries have high rates of drug use. According to a report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), for males these occupations included those in the entertainment industries, athletes, those in food services (including bars), and construction workers. Among women the occupations with the highest rates of illicit drug use were in food services, social work, and the legal professions.“
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that 9.2% of working Americans in 2012 were drug users. In other words, about one in every ten of your job applicants are drug abusers!
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Up to 40% of industrial fatalities can be linked to alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The majority of the fatal accidents that I have personally investigated involved the use of either drugs or alcohol.
“Drug-using employees are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in workplace accidents and five times more likely to file a workers compensation claim”. I’ve investigated many injury accidents where the employee/supervisor/manager hurt themselves because they were high or drunk while at work.
Your safety program will do little to prevent injuries to substance abusers. Impaired employees will find a way to hurt themselves, even if they work in a relatively hazard free environment. I’ve seen impaired employees get hurt when they tripped over their own feet, or slammed a door onto their hand.
You should have a drug and alcohol policy. Every employer should have a “pre-hire”, “random”, “reasonable suspicion”, and “post-accident” drug and alcohol testing policy.
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Awakenings