FOCUS: SAFETY
‘Red flags are everywhere’
By SAM BARNES
Rising substance abuse during the pandemic lockdown could have residual impacts on industrial safety.
Overdose deaths in Louisiana jumped 50% to 75% between 2019 and 2020—the largest increase in the country.
1012industryreport.com
“These guys go to work every day to environments that are dangerous. But they found themselves facing a virus that they couldn’t see or mitigate against.” SARAH TAYLOR, Owner/CEO, Gulf Coast Occupational Medicine COLLIN RICHIE
T
he red flags are everywhere, industrial health experts will tell you. They’re concerned that increases in substance use and abuse during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has produced a new batch of addicts. Unfortunately, that might lead to sustained, rising rates of abuse among workers in the industrial market, some of whom could slip past standard drug screenings. When the nation was subject to mandatory stay-at-home orders, anxiety levels among the U.S. population rose exponentially. Officials with Louisiana’s Office of Behavioral Health say that multiple crises from hurricanes to the pandemic left many residents with feelings of grief, fear, anxiety, depression or anger. Many turned to artificial means of coping with those feelings. According to data from the Louisiana Department of Health, overdose deaths in the state jumped some 50% to 75% from 2019 to 2020—the largest increase in the country—and about 70% of those deaths involved opioids. In Calcasieu Parish, alone, some 41 people died from opioid overdoses from Jan. 1 to May 13 in 2021, according to Calcasieu Parish Coroner Terry Welke. Louisiana isn’t alone. According to the American Medical Association, every state has reported a spike
or increase in overdose deaths or other problems during the COVID pandemic. Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the U.S. in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded. These startling statistics are having a very real impact on Louisiana’s industrial market, says Sarah Taylor, owner and CEO of Gulf Coast Occupational Medicine Inc. in Prairieville. She noticed a significant uptick in positive drug screening at her facility during the middle of the lockdown in 2020. “When stimulus money was being distributed in South Louisiana, we saw a 5 to
7 percent increase in positive drug screens,” Taylor says. “I’ve been doing drug testing for 25 years, and that’s a significant positive increase.” Unfortunately, any uptick in positive screenings could potentially lead to a corresponding increase in workers slipping through the cracks. “We take as many precautions as we can to protect the legitimacy and accuracy of our testing process, but drug users are very determined people and have a huge incentive to beat my test,” she adds. Much of the increase in positives comes from anxiety medications. “The statistic that stood out to me is an increase in the use of benzodiazepines, which is Xanax and Valium,” Taylor says. “Those are drugs that are either prescribed or obtained illegally.” It’s difficult to determine a “cause and effect” relationship, but she says “I can tell you that the pandemic and the resulting unemployment and quarantine, along with a significant level of fear, was followed by a marked increase in drugs used to treat anxiety in our workforce.” The substance abusers generally fall into two categories: those who were anxious about paying their bills because they couldn’t work, and those who were anxious about being
in a work environment where their life was presumably at risk. That stress was compounded for industrial workers. “These guys go to work every day to environments that are dangerous,” Taylor says, “but they found themselves facing a virus that they couldn’t see or mitigate against.” While the percentage of positive drug screenings might have gone down since the early days of the pandemic, Taylor is concerned that the long-term, lingering effects might adversely impact safety and the health of industrial workers. “What we need to worry about is a year from now when all those people can’t get off those drugs and we have a whole new addition process,” she adds. “We create a whole bunch of new junkies when we start treating things with means other than coping skills, counseling, and peer support. Everybody’s saying they’re concerned about the long-term effects of COVID, but I’m concerned about the long-term effects of COVID from a behavioral standpoint.” PROACTIVE POSTURE A tidal wave of disinformation has been a big contributor to the anxiety, so education about the pandemic 10/12 INDUSTRY REPORT • FALL 2021 55
