workers' compensation

Industries With the Highest Drug Abuse Rates

November 11, 2019 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

With the ever-increasing number of states legalizing marijuana and the growing opioid epidemic, employers wouldn’t be out of line to be worried about drug usage among their employees. Beyond simple employer worries, recent surveys have shown steady increases in drug usage among professionals in a number of sectors, largely manual work.

The Construction Industry

Workers in the construction industry have seen a 46.7% increase in marijuana use since 2018. Beyond that, 3.4% of construction workers reported using non-prescription opioids. For comparison, the average non-prescription opioid use rate for other professions is about 2%.

These numbers are largely due to the nature of the work, which is straining and can easily lead to injury. A large percentage of opioid abuse begins with an official prescription given after an injury. Worker’s compensation is often more willing to cover opioid prescriptions that better long-term solutions such as physical therapy or surgery.

Oil and Gas Extraction

There are about 161,300 people working in oil and gas extraction in America, and, when grouped with construction workers, had a 12.2% fatal injury rate in 2017. High-stress jobs such as oil and gas extraction can lead to workers self-medicating with marijuana or, in the case of a more serious injury, opioids

Other Industries

Some other industries also saw high rates of drug abuse, whether marijuana, opiates, amphetamines, or cocaine based. Of the entertainment, recreation, and food services industries (all of which had at least double the national rate of drug usage), the food services industry is the most interesting due to its 17.3% drop in marijuana usage over 2018.

The Takeaway

More dangerous industries have higher rates of drug use, as workers are more likely to self-medicate. Jobs involving manual labor are more likely to produce work-related injuries that the worker is unlikely to be able to afford thorough care for. When faced with an option between an expensive and time-consuming healing process on their own dime or an opioid prescription covered by their worker’s comp, a worker shouldn’t be expected to take the former.

Why the $50 Billion Opioid Settlement is Laughably Small

October 18, 2019 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The years-long legal battle with pharmaceutical companies regarding their part in the ongoing opioid epidemic might be coming to a head today, as the top six companies being held accountable negotiate a potential settlement. Should that settlement be agreed upon, it’s estimated to reach close to $50 billion. But given the damage opioids have done to the country, is $50 billion enough?

Brief Background

Starting in 1996, Purdue Pharma heavily marketed its drug OxyContin, an opioid, as a non-addictive painkiller with more power than acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Obviously, only one of those claims is true. Since then the prescription opioid market has boomed, making manufacturers ungodly amounts of money and distributing highly addictive painkillers to millions of Americans. Between 2006 and 2012, 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were prescribed and distributed.

Due to increased first-hand experience of the dangers of over-prescription of opioids, numbers of prescriptions began dropping. Numbers peaked in 2012 with 255 million prescriptions, but have lowered to 191 million in 2017. While this looks like a significant drop, prescription rates are still much higher than they need to be.

In an interactive map released annually by the CDC, users can see numbers of prescriptions per 100 people in a county for any year from 2006 to 2017. Bell County, Kentucky, was lucky to see a drop of over 50 prescriptions per 100 people between 2012 and 2017, unfortunately, that just dropped the number from 281 to 228 prescriptions per 100 people. For context, Bronx County, New York, only had 26.4 prescriptions per 100 people in 2017, a drop from 38.1 in 2012.

The damages from the epidemic have had a wide-ranging impact on the American economy, which the Washington Post estimates have cost the US upwards of $631 billion.

What Makes up the $631 Billion

Dangerous drugs come with a variety of costs, from treatment to decreasing work efficiency to wrongful death. The Washington Post story breaks down part of their estimate to the costs of treatment and wrongful death, $205 and $253 billion, respectively. The remaining costs relate to decreased work efficiency, absenteeism from work and family, and drug-related incarceration.

Due to these high numbers, the $50 billion settlement doesn’t even cover half of the losses estimated to have hit federal, state, and local governments ($186 billion).

How Prescriptions Lead to Damages

Opioids are highly addictive, which is known to the CDC, doctors, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, PBMs, pop-culture icons, and just about anyone who has been alive in the past 10 years. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop doctors from prescribing doses that are higher and more ongoing than recommended for safe usage.

Worker’s compensation and workplace injuries are places where addiction and damages start for a lot of people. Injuries that occur due to physical work can require weeks, months, or even years of physical therapy to fully recover, and pain can often slow down or stop the employee from returning to work. Opioids give the opportunity to return to work quickly without the pain. Unfortunately, the prescriptions provided by workers’ compensation are often much higher than recommended, with workers refilling prescriptions for over 90 days after an incident. According to the CDC, 45% of opioid claims were due to injuries that had been sustained over 2 years prior.

The chemical dependence of the brain on opioids and natural tolerance build-up over time makes long-term prescriptions dangerous and less effective than advertised. According to the National Safety Council, patients who have been using prescription opioids for over 3 months are highly likely to already be dependent and have a built-up tolerance. The CDC notes that this is detrimental to the economy, as workers with a pain medication disorder miss an average of 29 days per year, almost 3X the 10.5 day average for regular employees.

While workplace injuries are the root of many opioid addictions, any injury or surgery can lead to addiction. Those who have sustained moderate to severe auto accident injuries and need to get back to work are likely to be prescribed opioids, as are those who have undergone minor surgery. I got all four wisdom teeth out just over a year ago and got a nice bottle of 15 Vicodin for my struggles; I ended up disposing of at least 4 of them once I had recovered and no longer felt like I needed serious painkillers. Point being, patients in pain cannot be trusted to deny opioids of their own free will. This is why doctors and pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable for medical malpractice when refillable prescriptions are given for non-chronic pain (and even chronic pain, given the human ability to build up tolerance).

What’s the Proper Response

As shown in cases like lawsuits against JUUL for advertising addictive nicotine products to children, holding companies accountable beyond settlements is incredibly difficult in America. $50 billion is an astronomical amount and would greatly help state and local governments treat and fight opioid addiction, but is only a fraction of the amount that opioids have already cost the country. Ideally, protections would be put in place and enforced to ensure only those who desperately need addictive and destructive substances and provided with them. Ideally, the people responsible for pushing opioids as non-addictive and constructive for chronic pain despite all evidence to the contrary would be put in jail and would have all assets stripped away. But then again, ideally, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

Skin Rashes and Workers’ Compensation: New Uniforms Bring Trouble to Delta Airlines

May 31, 2019 by Mike Nason Leave a Comment

Flight attendants are known for working in an exceptionally dangerous field. This job is one of the most unhealthy in the United States, since flight attendants spend so much time in close quarters with passengers, have abnormal sleep patterns, and often work in unclean work environments. When Delta Airlines introduced new uniforms that attendants were mandated to wear, some flight attendants reported even more health problems.

New Uniforms from Lands’ End

Clothing is often treated to minimize wrinkling and staining, and the chemicals used in these treatments often cause issues among consumers. The “Passport Plum” uniforms were commissioned by Delta Airlines and produced by Lands’ End. Despite the extensive testing performed on the costumes, employees began reporting issues.

Skin Issues Reported

Employees named in the pending case against Delta Airlines report a wide range of health issues, including skin rashes that mimic the appearance and feeling of burns, fatigue, chronic headaches, and skin irritation. One flight attendant even claims that she experienced a low white blood cell count after wearing the uniform on a daily basis.

Workers’ Compensation Cases

Overall, under 1% of Delta Airlines flight attendants have reported health issues that may be tied to the new uniforms. However, in a company the size of Delta Airlines, that still amounts to a substantial amount of affected employees. Furthermore, there may be additional employees that have experienced issues but are afraid to report them. Their at-will, non-unionized status means that many employees fear termination or retaliation if they complain about conditions. The first employee to report issues filed a workers’ compensation claim and was subsequently permitted to wear a standard pantsuit and blouse to work. Her symptoms have ceased. The dermatologist responsible for her care claims that the damage occurred due to allergies to the formaldehyde and dyes in the uniform.

Other employees have also filed workers’ compensation claims against Delta Airlines, but report resistance from the company. The company has told employees that untreated uniforms are limited in supply. Additionally, they have required affected employees to go through extensive allergy testing and alternative clothing options.

Class Action Lawsuit

Now, the issue has moved from a standard workers’ compensation issue to a class action lawsuit that could cost Delta Airlines a significant amount of money. Flight attendants have come together to file a suit that makes a number of damning claims against Delta and Lands’ End, including:

Manufacturing defects
Design defects
Negligence
Failure to warn

In the suit, employees are asking for damages, attorneys’ fees, and an injunction. The suit has had several other effects on Delta Airlines employees. Delta flight attendants have long been non-union, at-will employees, but that could change soon. Employees may soon be represented by a union, which could protect workers from issues like this in the future.

What Does This Mean for Delta Airlines?

Class action lawsuits can take years to resolve. Before they case itself can move forward, the class must be certified. The court must find that the proposed case accurately represents the class of people being represented and that they have all been damaged in similar ways. This does not look at the merits of the actual case. If the class is certified, then the case can move forward.

If the class is successful in proving their case, Delta Airlines could face substantial financial damages. In total, the suit asks for more than $5 million in damages. Furthermore, the company could be forced to stop requiring the use of the Passport Plum uniforms, which were developed over a period of three years and undoubtedly cost a substantial amount of money in research and development.

This case has caught the nation’s attention. Whichever way it goes, it is relevant to business owners and employees alike.

In general, instances such as this highlight the importance of knowing your employer’s obligations to your well-being. If there’s ever any doubt about your safety as an employee, it could be beneficial to talk to an employment law firm that can clarify your rights and provide insight into any options you may have.