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Brief of diving:
- The Senate of the State of Pennsylvania has officially designated the week of July 21-25 as “Construction Opioid awareness week“, According to a statement from July 17.
- The recognition was through resolution 133 of the Senate, which was introduced by the State Senator John I. Kane, a plumber and Labor leader who is a minority president of the State Labor and Industry Committee. Senator Devlin Robinson, President of the Labor and Industry Committee, and Senator Tina Tartagione also sponsored the measure.
- The resolution promotes the construction industry in Pennsylvania to continue to promote the awareness of the dangers of opioids and recipe drug abuse, with special emphasis during the summer months when the construction activity is at its peak, according to the statement.
Divide vision:
The bond between opioids and a wider drug abuse, with the construction industry, is well documented. During the first year of Covid-19 Pandemic, construction and extraction work led all other occupations 162.6 Deaths of Drug Overdosis per 100,000 workers Nationally, according to a report of 2023 of the disease control and prevention centers.
However, awareness week comes with a silver coating, as legislators cited a decrease in drug overdose deaths across the country of 110,037 by 2023 to 80,391 by 2024, according to the statement.
“As someone who spent decades in construction shops, I have witnessed the first -hand witness of the devastating impact of opioid addiction to our workforce,” Kane said in the statement. “I have lost friends, colleagues and members of the community in this epidemic. This is not just a policy for me, it is personal.”
Additional calls to action from the initiative include:
- Add to keep Naloxona in construction sites and contractor offices.
- Promote the telephone line for the prevention of Mental Health Crisis and Suicide 988, which has helped more than 14.5 million people since 2022.
- Distribute the stickers “warn -me” for workers’ insurance cards to encourage healthcare providers to discuss opioid problems.
- Organize the “Take Back Drug” events to combat recipe drug abuse.
Beside the legislation, 15 organizations collaborate to promote awareness throughout the week, including the Keystone Contractors Association, the Council of Commerce of Constructions and Constructions of Pensilvania, the Regional Council of Carpenters of the States of the East Atlantic and the General Association of Contractors, according to the statement.
The resolution also recognized the efforts of organizations working to combat opioid abuse within the construction industry, including the Keystone Contractors Association, which provides free Naloxona to any Pennsylvania construction company that requests it.
