At the Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts (AGC MA), Director of Safety Services Chris Ziegler oversees a host of measures meant to keep members of the Massachusetts construction workforce safe and healthy. Alongside strong jobsite protections, these efforts include vigorous substance use disorder and suicide prevention programs.
 
Members of the construction industry, who suffer physical injuries at a higher rate than many other professions, also suffer from addiction to pain medications at high rates. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, approximately 15% of construction workers in the U.S. have a substance abuse disorder, compared to 8.6% of all adults.
 
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced The White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose, which calls on American organizations and businesses to increase training on and accessibility of medications that reverse opioid overdoses. The Fact Sheet announcing the challenge highlighted the great work of AGC MA member John Moriarty & Associates and other industry stakeholders working to increase access and training to Narcan/naloxone.
 
This is welcome news to all of us here at AGC MA, and it follows the Food & Drug Administration’s approval of naloxone, a life-saving, non-prescription, over-the-counter drug that is currently available at grocery stores and pharmacies across the country. Naloxone is used to reverse drug overdoses caused by prescription opioids as well as heroin and fentanyl.
 
As part of the CARE Construction Safety Program, AGC MA became the first construction trade association in Massachusetts approved as a Community Naloxone Provider through the Department of Public Health. This means that AGC MA members and others have direct access to free naloxone and overdose response training.   To learn more about these resources follow the link below. https://www.agcmass.org/safety-health-and-wellness-services/.  
 
So far, more than 1000 doses of naloxone in over 500 Overdose Response Kits have been distributed, and one person’s life has already been saved on a construction jobsite. In addition, AGC MA has developed an industry specific Overdose Response Training to supplement the thousands of tradespeople in the Boston area already trained to administer naloxone.
 
For more information, please contact Chris Ziegler at 781/786-8912 or ziegler@agcmass.org.