Surveys show that substance abuse remains one of the most serious safety issues facing U.S. employers.
Statistics tell us that:
- Over 6 million active alcoholics are on the payrolls of American businesses.
- Some 73 percent of all current illegal drug users aged 18 and older are employed.
- The price tag for employers dealing with workplace substance abuse has been reported at more than $250 billion a year.
- Alcohol and drug abusers can be found in every industry and at every level in the organization.
And it gets worse:
- Employees working under the influence are over 3 times more likely to have an accident than sober workers.
- Up to 40 percent of industrial fatalities and 47 percent of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol abuse.
- According to the National Council on Compensation Insurance, as much as 38 to 50 percent of all workers’ compensation claims are related to substance abuse.
- Substance abusers are 5 times more likely to file workers’ comp claims.
- According to a national survey conducted by the Hazelden Foundation, more than 60 percent of adults know people who have gone to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
- Not a few co-workers of abusers say that they have been put in danger because of the abuser’s impairment on the job.
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Effects of Workplace Substance Abuse
Either alcohol or drug abuse (or both, in some cases) can have a devastating effect on just about every part of an employee’s life. The abuser could end up losing everything:
- Job
- Home
- Family
- Friends
- Savings
- Physical and mental health
It’s that serious, and it probably wouldn’t be hard to find a recovering abuser who lost it all to come in and talk to your employees. A good dose of reality always adds impact to a safety message.
There’s also the negative fallout of substance abuse in the workplace. This includes:
- Steady deterioration of work performance
- Unreliability
- Recklessness that can jeopardize the safety of co-workers, the integrity of products and services, and the organization’s reputation
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Working under the influence affects just about every faculty an employee needs to work safely:
- Vision
- Coordination
- Dexterity
- Alertness
- Reflexes
- Judgment
- Concentration
It’s horrifying to think what could happen if a drunken or drugged employee was operating a machine or power tool, driving a vehicle, handling dangerous chemicals, or performing one of dozens of other hazardous tasks. And yet, statistics like the ones at the beginning of this article tell us that they do.
Here are some more statistics, these from the transportation industry:
In 2010, when the Department of Transportation instituted lower cutoff levels for amphetamines and cocaine in required drug-testing in safety-sensitive jobs, there was a 33 percent jump in cocaine positives and a rise of just over 25 percent in amphetamine positives The findings are based on 1.6 million federally mandated drug tests performed in 2011.
These statistics indicate that many more workers than originally identified by drug tests have been working impaired by drugs—and in jobs like truck driver and airline pilot that have the potential for accidents that could kill or injure a lot of people.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about substance abuse in the workplace and identify some steps you can take to minimize the risks.