Keeping it Clean

PUBLISHED MARCH 2024

Construction executives don’t like to speak about it—publicly, anyway—but they know they have a serious problem. It goes beyond materials costs, a tight labor market, and supply chain disruptions.

It’s substance abuse. And they are right to be concerned.

To put their challenge into the proper perspective, consider that estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are that nearly 55,000 people die every year because of opioid overdoses alone—and that doesn’t even account for deaths from non-opioid substances.

By comparison, the peak year for vehicle deaths in the U.S. over the past decade was about 47,000 in 2021. 

The problem for the construction sector is that it far outpaced every other line of commerce with fatal overdoses, at a rate of 162.6 per 100,000 workers, the CDC says. That figure is a considerably higher toll than the second-place food-preparation/serving realm, with 117.9 deaths per 100,000 employees. No other sector—not even high-risk occupations such as transportation and material-moving—exceeded 75 per 100,000.

The raw horror of three Kansas City men who froze to death after a gathering to watch a Chiefs’ game in January was obscured somewhat, at first by questions over whether someone was criminally liable or negligent and in the coming weeks by the community’s focused reaction to the Feb. 14 mass shooting that followed the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade ceremony.

What that coverage largely overlooked was that all three men had past or current work histories in the construction sector. Authorities have confirmed that while the arctic chill ultimately proved fatal, all had traces of cocaine and fentanyl in their systems. 

The link to the construction sector is both obvious and historic: Injuries suffered on the job in many cases involve overexertion and twisting motions that not only produce immediate, acute pain but can damage muscles and, over time, lead to chronic pain as well. Too many in the sector turn to painkillers for relief—and too often, those compounds can become addictive.

Worse yet, law-enforcement officials nationwide say that drugs sold on the street today are often contaminated with fatal levels of fentanyl, with buyers unaware of what they’re really taking.

One organization focused on helping contractors and owners in the trades keep a handle on the issue is the Mo-Kan Construction Industry Substance Abuse Program. It partners with more than two dozen trade unions, and conducts drug testing as a regular deterrent to use, or in cases after an accident, to help determine liability.

By keeping workers free of abuse, contractors can address their safety goals, control risks that raise project costs, and head off other claims regarding personal injury or property damage. Workers being tested also realize a benefit from improved recovery times.

“For ABC Corp., say they have 500 guys working for them,” says Brad Patten, the CISAP director. “We can funnel them into SAP training so they see the signs or recognize when an individual is under the influence or in an impaired state, which can cause problems on the site.”

Those problems run both broad and deep. According to the National Association of Home Builders, roughly 15 percent of all construction workers in the United States have a substance abuse disorder, compared to 8.6 percent of the general population of adults. And those workers account for 25 percent of fatal opioid overdoses.

The sheer number of people in construction and rates of accidents skew the stats somewhat, but Patten believes that drug use among workers in this region is lower than you’d find if you tested the general population. And for good reason. There’s too much at risk for most construction workers today.

“I’m a little biased, but I believe the majority of this workforce—middle-aged men who are making very good salaries in the six figures each year, with overtime, plus pensions, benefits, and other perks—are clean,” Patten says. “We’ve been doing this since 2003, and we’ve largely weeded out the ones who travel in, say just want to be laborer and smoke weed.”

The vast majority, he says, “know they’ll be tested, and they’re not going to jeopardize any of what they’ve worked for. They all know what the deal is, so they’re pretty good about what they have to do. In general, if you go out on the street and try the general public, I think you’d have a higher percentage (of abusers). General construction is not like that—it’s going to be some transient workers and the like” who are responsible for the illicit use.

For contractors and trades companies, he said, “this is totally about risk. The underwriters who write policies for a new Royals stadium or a hospital renovation will require that level of monitoring. If I go to a site, I can’t test impairment other than for alcohol. If something happens and a post-event drug screen shows positive and involves a fatality, we know what will happen: Somebody will get sued and lawyer up. One of the best ways to prevent that is to make sure your people are clean.”

A compounding challenge for construction executives in this area is the state line—recreational marijuana use is now legal in Missouri but not in Kansas. In fact, the law is even more restrictive to the west, with no allowance for medicinal use. But those companies have risen to the challenge, Patten said.

“Even after the state of Missouri legalized it, our board, our contractors and our union reps all said we don’t want it,” he said. “We’re working with heavy equipment, electricity—they say they just don’t want that in those environments.”