The reasons behind this are a complicated mix of pain management, job insecurity and having nowhere else to turn, researchers say.
“The first thing we found was that one in 13 deaths that happened over that timeframe, occurred among construction workers,” Dr. Tara Gomes, one of the authors of the study, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Tuesday. “So that was 366 people over the three year period who had an opioid related death.”
The new study echoes data from B.C., she said, but is the first of its kind to look at Ontario construction workers in particular, using data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, as well as from non-profit corporation ICES.The reasons why construction workers in particular are vulnerable to dying of opioid-related causes are complex, Gomes said.
Almost 80 per cent of those who died of opioid toxicity within the study period had an injury or were battling pain in the last five years, a statistic that echoes the greater trend of opioid-related deaths in general, even outside of the construction industry, Gomes said. Cocaine and alcohol were also involved in a lot of these deaths, Gomes said, at a much higher rate than among non-construction workers.
“So they might be people who would be eligible for treatment with access to drugs like methadone and buprenorphine that are very well proven to be a really helpful treatment option for people with an opioid use disorder.”
Until municipal, provincial, and federal policing services start actively engaging organized crime this will continue. We need to have a serious discussion about policing in Canada. We are not being well served.
This is a MAJOR crisis, yet the covid and climate change fear mongering still eats up the majority of MSM stories.
Construction workers from across Canada are dying of opioid-related causes.
After Hardy’s accident, the provincial agency pushed him back into the work force while he was still in pain, then cut his benefits.
so now you're worried. Gonna upset your new buildings that your gonna make millions on?
Maybe we overwork EVERYBODY… when we started coining the term “burnout” we should have acknowledged then and there that we have a problem, and fixed it. A stupid world led by even stupider leaders.
You've got a skewed explanation here. If they develop an addiction or abuse of opioids it's likely due to the stress WCBs put them through as well as forcing them to work with pain. Then their doctor may cut them off due to 'the opioid crisis' so they go to street drugs.
Make it legal to possess like methamphetamine.... wait..
Didn't need a study...I could have told you myself 😂 let me guess...roofing is number 1