Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Ontario Construction Consortium (OCC) has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the opioid drug overdose crisis that has hit the construction industry. The Other Pandemic responds to the increase in drug overdose deaths across Ontario.
A new report shows that 2,500 Ontarians died of drug overdoses in 2020, up from 1,500 in 2019 – an increase of 60 per cent and the construction industry workforce is being impacted more than any other sector of the economy.
Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN), a report by the office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario and Public Health Ontario was released on May 19. It showed that of all opioid overdose victims who were employed 30 per cent were construction workers.
“This situation is alarming,” said OCC Executive Director Phil Gillies.
“Construction workers are dying from drug overdoses, a crisis largely driven by the widespread street distribution of the highly-addictive opioid fentanyl and the 60 per cent increase in deaths in 2020 has to be linked to the shutdowns and isolation imposed by the COVID pandemic.”
Gillies went on to say the increase in addiction and mental health issues during the pandemic is impacting the construction workforce in “a dramatic and tragic fashion.”
OCC reviewed the situation early in 2021, after U.S. data from the Centres for Disease Control confirmed construction workers were the most at-risk workforce group in that country.
Statistics show a similar reality across Canada.
“Now we have this tragic situation confirmed in Canada,” Gillies said.
“This crisis is very real in our country. The ODPRN report indicates that at least 57 construction workers died of overdoses in Ontario last year. And the situation continues to unfold. I know of one worker, a 28-year-old man, who died over the May long weekend.”
OCC’s campaign, TheOtherPandemic.ca , urges construction workers to take steps to safeguard their health and safety. A video includes comments by addiction health care experts and from Toronto Mayor John Tory.
“Using hard drugs alone is killing people,” Gillies said. “What we are recommending here will save lives.”
The campaign enforces the following safety tips:
- Do not use hard drugs alone. Use in the company of another individual with a Naloxone kit close at hand or go to a supervised injection site.
- As this advice will bring the worker into close company with other people, OCC urges all construction workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
- Unions and contractors must step up training and education regarding drug use and its possible consequences.
- Governments need to increase addiction treatment and counselling services to meet this unprecedented challenge.
- Workers wrestling with addiction should seek help. With a public health crisis manifesting itself in a 60% increase in deaths in one year, there was never a better time to stop using hard drugs if possible.
The OCC campaign is supported by the Interior Systems Contractors Association, the Carpenters Union District Council of Ontario and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.