The Opioid Impact on Ohio’s Workforce

(Winter 2017) The Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com recently analyzed over 12,000 death records of Ohioans who overdosed between 2010 and 2016. In each of these fatalities, coroners identified that an opioid was present in the decedent’s system, either in the form of prescription pain relievers, synthetic opioids or heroin.

The information, furnished by the Ohio Department of Health, detailed the victims’ occupations, giving some insight into opioids’ impact on the workforce. Statewide, the number of deaths due to opioids has more than tripled in less than a decade — from 970 in 2010 to 3,393 in 2016. The construction and extraction sector has been hardest hit, with construction workers dying from an opioid overdose seven times more often than the average Ohio employee. Unfortunately, a prescription painkiller written for an on-the-job injury can be the first step to opioid addiction — and possibly a fatal overdose.

In 2010, construction workers’ chances of filing for workers’ compensation were triple that of employees in other industries. At that time eight in ten construction claimants were prescribed opioids such as OxyContin®, Vicodin®, or Percocet. However, with the extreme risks associated with prescription opioids becoming more apparent, by 2016 the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) had reduced the number of injury claims from “overprescribed” opioids by half. It is surprising to note, though, that over 70% of construction workers hurt on the job were still written a narcotic prescription in 2016.

Another segment of the population showing a higher-than-average risk for deadly opioid overdoses in 2016 is the unemployed, which factors into what some health professionals have deemed “deaths by despair.”

Young workers or those just eligible to enter the workforce are sadly not immune to the wave of deadly overdoses, either. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that U.S. teenage overdose mortalities jumped 19% from 2014 to 2015, with drugs taking the young lives of 772 Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2015. Opioids, mainly heroin, were most often to blame for overdose deaths in this age range. Although a majority of teen overdose fatalities were accidental, female suicides in this category outpaced males by more than two to one.

Overall, the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimates that approximately 14% of Americans are currently battling a substance abuse disorder.

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