An official analysis shows that people who perform manual labor have the highest chance of dying from a drug overdose.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at more than 60,000 drug-related fatalities nationwide in 2020 and found that construction and extraction workers — such as builders, roofers and oil workers — were dying at a rate due to illegal overdoses and prescription medications. of 163 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Researchers said one of the reasons for this was that the workers are more likely to experience injuries or chronic pain and then become addicted to opioids after using them to control the condition.
Restaurant and food service workers, such as waiters, bartenders and chefs, were the second most likely to die from illegal drugs — such as heroin and cocaine — which analysts said could be due to a lack of job security. In this group, 118 per 100,000 people died as a result of illegal drugs.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at more than 60,000 drug-related deaths nationwide in 2020 for the analysis.
People who work in personal care, such as hairdressers, fitness instructors and manicurists, died at the third highest rate of 74 per 100,000 people.
Conversely, teachers were least likely to die as a result of illegal substance use, as were computer experts and those employed in business and financial activities.
In the paperpublished in Tuesday National Vital Statistics Reportsresearchers looked through data from the National Vital Statistics System at fatalities from illegal drug use and occupation.
In the US, about 90,000 people overdosed in 2020, with the number of fatalities rising to a record high of 109,000 by 2022 and about 13 percent of Americans admitting to using illegal drugs at least once a month.
Several experts warn that the number of fatalities could reach another record by 2023, despite $1.6 billion being spent on prevention efforts. In the year to March 2023, an estimated 110,000 people died of drug overdose.
The rise is driven in part by fentanyl, a toxic man-made opioid mixed into drugs that is deadly even in trace amounts.
The Covid pandemic is also cited as a cause because people become isolated, experience the threat of death or a loved one, or lose their job.
The deaths included in the study were among people between the ages of 16 and 64 and came from 46 states and New York City.
Investigators analyzed death certificates to determine the cause of death and identify a person’s occupation.
Subsequently, a death rate per 100,000 was calculated by occupation by dividing the number of overdose deaths by the number of workers in the area, based on official estimates.
The results were age-adjusted to allow comparison between each group.
Overall, the researchers found an average of 42 illicit drug deaths per 100,000 people.
But among the construction workers – who led the way in the numbers – the rate was almost four times higher: 162 deaths per 100,000.
The CDC warned that construction workers are at greater risk of serious bodily injury on the job.
Painkillers are prescribed to help workers, they said, but many return to work too early — or sometimes work through injuries — because of financial pressures.
This leads them to begin relying on painkillers or overdoses to numb the feeling, which in turn increases the risk of them developing an addiction and taking illegal drugs.
For waiters, bartenders and chefs, the percentage was almost three times higher and for personal service employees almost twice as high.
Researchers warned that this group could also suffer injuries because they spend a lot of time on their feet, potentially putting them in the same cycle. These workers are also at risk of psychological stress due to job insecurity or high workload, which can lead to drug use.
The top five also included transportation workers, such as truck, bus and taxi drivers, as well as construction and grounds maintenance workers, including janitors, cleaners and groundskeepers.
The CDC said its report “demonstrates the disproportionate burden of the ongoing overdose crisis on certain sectors of the U.S. workforce.”
Data on the drugs behind the overdose deaths have not been revealed, but fentanyl has repeatedly emerged as the main cause in previous reports.