Medication reporting in the workplace

Impairment from medication use in hazardous work environments has not been well studied. We analyzed incident events in an explosive manufacturing facility using a retrospective case control study to determine whether medication use was related to safety incidents. Medication use between the incident group and the controls was not significantly different. However, 23% of the incident group had been employed by the facility for less than 1 year compared with 2% of controls. Only 19% of restricted medication use was self-reported. In this study, being employed less than 1 year was a greater predictor of safety incidents than was medication use, and self-reporting did not reflect actual medication use. We conclude that medication use is not directly related to safety events and that a self-reporting program is difficult to justify in the corporate setting.