palletcentral

38 Pallet C e nt ral • No vem be r-D e cem be r 2 0 24 Telling the difference between being high and having an overdose may be difficult. When the person's breathing, pulse and alertness are greatly affected, it could be an overdose. If you are not sure if they have OD'd or had a heart attack or stroke, call 911 and administer Narcan. If they immediately revive, it was likely an OD. If it has no effect, another health condition may be involved (but the use of Narcan will not harm them). e type of workers who are at an elevated risk for chronic injury and addiction includes workers in stressful positions, those who carry heav y tool bags or equipment, or those who spend long periods bent down or on their knees. A third of construction workers have bone ailments, which make patients three times as likely to be prescribed opiates for pain. Many of the working wounded are hourly and may not get paid leave, which means that use of opiates can allow them to return to work more quickly (but with the potential for more serious injuries as pain is masked by the drugs). is pattern of long-term opiate use for treatment of work- related conditions has led more than a dozen states to hold that where medical cannabis can be legally purchased, employers (or insurers) must reimburse workers for this when doctors recommend it as an alternative to opiate use for pain management. In some of these reported cases, such as a 2023 matter in Pennsylvania involving Firestone Tire, the court ruled that treatment use of marijuana was preferable from a safety perspective than continued use of opiates—and the injured worker had been using opiates at that point for 30 years! ese "working wounded " are at high risk for overdose on the job (OTJ)—and the desperation of addiction has a synergistic impact on OTJ suicide rates as well. Where the worker dies on the job or is hospitalized as a result of the OD, I get asked whether OSHA must be notified. e answer is yes—any fatality on the job (even a heart attack or suicide) must be reported to federal OSHA within 8 hours of the employer learning of the event (some states have shorter notification periods). If a worker is hospitalized (admitted as an in-patient), OSHA must be notified within 24 hours. If OSHA determines that the death/illness was not work related, then they will confirm that it does not need to be included on the OSHA 300/301 logs, but the agency reserves the right to investigate and determine if working conditions caused or contributed to the event. I also get asked whether OSHA can issue citations to the employer based on a worker's overdose. Again, the answer is yes. OSHA does not go out looking for impaired workers in order to issue citations, but if the condition is brought to the agency's attention via a severe injury or fatality report, and the investigation reveals that the employer knew or should have known that the worker was high while working, this can constitute a violation of the "General Duty Clause" (GDC)—section 5(a) (1) of the OSH Act of 1970. e GDC is used as a "gap filler," that is, where no OSHA CONT. 38 Pallet C e nt ral • No vem be r-D e cem be r 2 0 24

• Cover