The NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP) conducted the following webinars related to Opioids and Substance Use: Workplace Prevention and Response, with a focus on addressing the impact of substance use on workers, the workplace, and the community.

Opioids and the Workplace, Risk Factors and Solutions (June 9, 2022)

A special issue of New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy includes a focus on opioids and the workplace, along with risk factors and solutions. The issue features research that addresses the convergence of COVID-19 and the opioid crisis, high-risk occupations, and health inequalities in the workplace. During this webinar, some of the authors shared potential strategies to reduce the negative impact of workplace factors on the opioid crisis and reform punitive policies into supportive ones. These strategies include policy changes at the workplace, community, state, and federal levels to begin or expand interventions, as well as training, research, and funding opportunities.

• Employers and Substance Use: Barriers to Success(323KB), Rachael Cooper, National Stigma Initiative
• It is Time to Implement Primary Prevention in the Workplace to Ameliorate the Ongoing U.S. Opioid Epidemic(521KB), Aurora Le, University of Michigan
• New Solutions Special Edition: Opioids and the Workplace(566KB), Paul Landsbergis, SUNY-Downstate School of Public Health
• Opioid Peer Training Pilot Project: Lessons Learned(1.7MB), Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH)

Additional Resources:

• Fact sheet on Special Issue of New Solutions Volume 31 Number 3, November 2021
• Initiatives to Prevent Opioid Misuse and Promote Recovery Friendly Workplace Programs
• NIEHS WTP Opioids and Substance Use: Workplace Prevention & Response

Initiatives to Prevent Opioid Misuse and Promote Recovery Friendly Workplace Programs (April 11, 2022)

A new National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) publication, Initiatives to Prevent Opioid Misuse and Promote Recovery Friendly Workplace Programs, includes summaries of opioid training conducted by organizations funded by the NIEHS Worker Training Program. It also highlights training programs, toolkits, resources, and initiatives from other agencies and organizations. This webinar provided an overview of the new NIEHS Opioid Initiatives publication, and described what organizations are doing in the fight to prevent substance use disorder and to implement recovery friendly workplace programs. The webinar also demonstrated how to use the document to kick start your own substance use disorder prevention or recovery friendly workplace program.

• CPWR Response to the Opioids and Mental Health Epidemic(4.0MB), Christopher Rodman, CWPR–Center for Construction Research and Training
• Opioids and the Workplace: Prevention and Response–Connecticut’s Collaboration(1.1MB), Robert Bongiolatti, Connecticut Department of Labor