Confronting Two Crises: The COVID-19 Pandemic, the Opioid Epidemic, and the Industrial Hygienist

This article was originally written for and published in the January 2021 issue of The Synergist, a monthly publication of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. The article addresses the convergence of the COVID-19 and opioid crises, the impact of the opioid crisis on the workplace and workers, and the role that industrial hygienists can play in developing workplace programs to prevent and respond to opioid misuse. While the article is specifically written for industrial hygienists, the review and recommendations will be useful to others who are developing workplace opioid prevention programs. Note that the data presented in this article were current as of January 2021. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest available data are for the twelve-month period ending October 2020 and include 88,990 total overdose deaths and 91,862 predicted, when reporting is completed. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm (accessed on 15 June 2021).