Construction workers are among the segments of the U.S. population opioids have hit hardest. Recent state-level studies of opioid overdose deaths show that construction workers are six to seven times more likely to die of an overdose than workers in other professions. The impact of opioids to our
field led CPWR to make it the focus of this recent Quarterly Data Report.

The report examines a small subset of construction workers who died of an overdose: those who died on a worksite. These are figures for which we have national data, but there is not equivalent national data yet about how many of the 130 Americans who die each day from an opioid overdose work in construction.

This report also reveals other gaps in our understanding of the impact of opioids on construction workers. For example, Section 2 contains the surprising finding that the percentage of workers who used prescribed opioids, on average, is slightly lower than workers in all industries combined.  Read more at https://www.cpwr.com/sites/default/files/publications/Quarter4-QDR-2019.pdf.