FOCUS ON ALCOHOL TESTING BY JOHN MALLIOS, STERLING BACKCHECK Alcohol Abuse: Are Employers Adequately Testing? D
uring the evening of May 30, 2012, a drunk driver on a Louisiana highway crashed into a minivan
carrying 7 people ranging in age from 6 to 64. All but one 13-year-old were killed at the scene. Te 13-year-old was taken off life support and died 4 days later.1 Te drunk driver, whose blood/alcohol
content more than 2 hours following the crash measured 0.15 (nearly twice Louisiana’s legal limit), was arrested by state police at the time of the crash, but released the next day on bond. Aſter the 13-year-old passed away, the driver was again arrested with various upgraded charges, including 7 counts of vehicular homicide. Prior to the crash, the drunk driver had 3
DWI arrests between 2004–2008. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison, which was reduced to 35 years without possibility of probation or parole a year later. Tis tragedy is one of many that depict
the harsh reality that of alcohol abuse affects people. In fact, alcohol abuse can also affect all aspects of life, including the workplace, which is why alcohol testing and monitoring is so important. First, let’s examine some of the statistics that also describe an equally unsetling truth.
Alarming Alcohol Abuse Statistics According to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a leading source of statistical and trend information on substance abuse among Americans: • More than 58 million adults are binge or heavy alcohol users—more than twice the amount of adults using illicit drugs. Among these users, 76.1 percent are employed.2
42 datia focus
• Te average annual rate of past month heavy alcohol use among full-time employees is 8.7 percent.3
• Across 19 industries, rates of past month heavy alcohol use by employees ranged from 4.4 percent in the Health Care & Social Assistance industry to 17.5 percent in the Mining industry3 According to the Centers for Disease
:
Control & Prevention (CDC): • Alcohol abuse costs employers more than $223 billion annually, 72 percent of which is atributed to lost productivity.4
• Approximately 88,000 deaths are due to excessive alcohol use each year.4
• More than 10,000 people were killed in 2013 by an alcohol-impaired driver, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic-related deaths.5
• Every day, more than 700,000 Americans receive treatment for alcoholism.6 According to the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, nearly 17 million adults had an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in 2013, which is a medical condition diagnosed when a patient’s drinking brings about distress or harm.7
Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States. Consequently, alcohol abuse in the workplace is an issue American employers must be consistently concerned about. Tough current alcohol abuse statistics
are quite concerning, significantly less workplace alcohol testing is seen when a federal mandate to test doesn’t apply.
Fall 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60