The Safety Newsletter

Construction Injuries, Opioids, and Suicide Prevention

A workplace injury can be the start of a much bigger problem.

Construction Suicide Prevention Week is September 14–18, 2026, during National Suicide Prevention Month. This year's theme is “Building on Progress.”

There is some encouraging news behind that theme. In 2024, workplace deaths from drug and alcohol overdoses fell from 512 to 410. Workplace suicides also declined, from 281 to 263. Overall, fatal work injuries fell 4% to 5,070.

But construction continues to face a serious problem with suicide and substance use, and some of the risk may begin with something safety professionals deal with every day: workplace injuries and pain.

The connection between injuries and prescription opioids stands out. CPWR found that prescription opioid use among construction workers dropped from 11% in 2011 to 5.2% in 2022, a decrease of more than half.

Among construction workers with a musculoskeletal injury, however, nearly 28% reported taking prescription opioids in 2022. That is more than five times the percentage among construction workers overall.

Musculoskeletal injuries can result from lifting, overexertion, falls, struck-by incidents, and other physical demands and hazards of construction work.

For safety managers and supervisors, that creates an important connection. Preventing these injuries does more than reduce lost work time. It can also reduce the pain and need for treatment that may lead to prescription opioid use.

That does not mean every prescription leads to dependence, or that workplace injuries explain every substance use or mental health problem. They do not. But it does mean that traditional safety efforts can be part of a larger prevention strategy.

Good lifting practices, ergonomic improvements, better tools and equipment, job planning, and early reporting of strains and sprains all matter. So does making it easier for workers to know where to turn when they need help.

Three things to do this month:

Make 988 easy to find. Post the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline with other emergency information so employees do not have to ask where to get help.

Observe Construction Suicide Prevention Week. A toolbox talk, safety meeting, or company message during the week of September 14 provides a natural opportunity to talk about available resources.

Review your injury records. Look for patterns in strains, sprains, and other musculoskeletal injuries, and consider what could be changed to prevent them. These injuries can have consequences that last well beyond the initial incident.

Anyone who needs help now can reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, at any hour. Learn more ›

Recent safety news, briefly.

Three workers died in two incidents at a Wisconsin food manufacturer. Both incidents involved industrial kettles that opened under pressure, releasing steam and hot liquid. OSHA cited hazards involving pressure, burns, lockout/tagout, falls, PPE, and emergency water access. The company faces $364,100 in proposed penalties. Read more ›

A Florida roofing contractor was cited again for fall protection violations. OSHA says the company has been inspected seven times since 2023, and every inspection included fall protection violations. The latest citations include two willful and four repeat violations, with $349,754 in proposed penalties. Read more ›

A worker was hospitalized after a Houston-area trench collapse. The collapse occurred while crews were installing sewer and water pipes. OSHA found inadequate excavation protection, no safe means of egress, and failure to report the hospitalization within 24 hours. The contractor faces $343,797 in proposed penalties. Read more ›

OSHA has renewed its warehouse National Emphasis Program. Inspections focus on forklifts, material handling and storage, walking-working surfaces, exits, heat, ergonomics, and fire protection. The program has been extended from three years to five, and inspections under the renewed program began July 31. Read more ›

A Tanker Trailer Counts as a Confined Space

A worker died inspecting one. The employer had no confined space program at all.

In January, a worker at a heavy truck parts distributor in Texas climbed into a tanker trailer to inspect it and asphyxiated. OSHA cited the company for sixteen serious violations, including failing to have a confined space program, gaps in respiratory protection, and electrical hazards. Proposed penalties came to $264,380. Read more ›

The space was not a tank, a silo, a pit, or a manhole. It was a trailer parked in a yard, being looked over by someone doing routine work.

Most confined space programs are built around the spaces that look the part. Somebody walks the site, identifies the tanks and the below-grade structures, posts the signs, and writes the permits. Vehicles and their components rarely make that list, because they are equipment rather than places. A tanker trailer sitting in a maintenance yard does not feel like a permit-required confined space.

OSHA found that the company had not implemented a permit-required confined space program. Workers were entering tanker trailers for inspection, cleaning, and repair without the procedures and protections required for safe entry. OSHA also found that confined space hazards were not evaluated before workers entered.

The lesson is to make sure your confined space program covers the spaces your employees actually enter. Walk through the work your employees perform and identify tanks, tanker trailers, hoppers, mixers, vessels, ductwork, and other enclosed spaces they may enter. Do not assume something falls outside the program simply because it is a vehicle, piece of equipment, or only entered occasionally.

Then compare those spaces with the ones already identified in your confined space program. If employees enter a space that has not been evaluated, have it evaluated before the next entry. The shape or location of a space does not determine whether it is a confined space. What matters is whether it meets OSHA's definition and, if it does, whether it contains hazards that make it a permit-required confined space. Learn more ›

Dates ahead this month.

School is back, and your drivers are sharing the road with school buses and students. NHTSA data shows school-age pedestrian deaths in school-transportation-related crashes are concentrated around morning arrival and afternoon dismissal times. Remind employees who drive for work to slow down in school zones, watch for children near buses and crosswalks, and allow extra time for routes that pass schools. Learn more ›

Sept. 11–17 · NSC Safety Congress & Expo, Indianapolis. More than 130 educational sessions are planned, along with an expo featuring more than 1,000 companies. If you work in safety, it is one of the major industry events of the year. NSC ›

September · National Preparedness Month. FEMA's theme this year is “Americans Stand Ready.” This is a good time to review your emergency action plan, update emergency contacts, and make sure employees know what to do during an emergency. If you haven't held a drill recently, put one on the calendar. Learn more ›

Sept. 21–25 · National Farm Safety and Health Week. Harvest brings long hours, heavy equipment, roadway hazards, and grain-handling risks. This year's daily topics include equipment and rural roadway safety, health and wellness, confined spaces, and cancer prevention. NECAS ›

Oct. 4–10 · Fire Prevention Week. This year's theme, “Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging Is a Superpower,” focuses on lithium-ion battery safety. Take a look at how power tools, laptops, e-bikes, and other rechargeable equipment are being charged and stored at your workplace. NFPA ›

Why Safety Committees Stop Working

Most safety committees fail quietly, here's why.

By John Matias, weeklysafety.com

Almost every company I talk to has a safety committee. Far fewer have one that employees would say actually makes a difference.

The problem usually develops slowly. The meetings still happen. People bring up concerns, somebody takes notes, and everyone goes back to work. Then the next meeting rolls around and some of the same issues are still sitting there.

If you want to know whether this is happening with your committee, look at the last few sets of meeting minutes. When the same issue shows up month after month without an update or resolution, something is not working.

A good committee usually has the basics in place: people from different parts of the company, employees and management at the table, someone leading the meeting, and someone keeping track of what was discussed. But having the right people in the room is only part of it.

What happens after the meeting matters more. Raising a safety concern is not the same as fixing it. Every item that needs action should have someone responsible for it and a reasonable date for follow-up. Assign it to the person who can actually get something done, not necessarily the person who brought it up.

At the next meeting, start with those open items. What was completed? What is still being worked on? What is holding something up? Do that before moving on to new business. It makes unfinished work hard to overlook.

Employees also need to know that the committee is doing something. If the only record of its work is a set of meeting minutes filed away somewhere, most employees will never know whether a concern they reported was addressed. Eventually, they may stop bringing concerns forward.

After each meeting, give employees a short update. Tell them what was discussed, what is being done, and when appropriate, who is handling it. It doesn't need to be lengthy. The important part is closing the loop so people know their concerns were heard.

None of this requires more meetings, more committee members, or a new safety program. It requires follow-through. When employees raise a problem, they should eventually be able to see what happened because they spoke up.

Try this before your next meeting. Pull the last three sets of minutes and mark every unresolved item that appears more than once. Find out why each one is still open, assign someone to follow up, and put a reasonable date on the next step. Then start your next meeting with that list.

A version of this first appeared on inspiresafety.com.

The Column is open to anyone with a stake in workplace safety — safety staff, but also owners, supervisors, HR, trainers, suppliers, and the people doing the work. Pitch an idea or send us a finished article. If we publish it, it carries your name, your credentials, and a link back to you. We read everything and reply either way. Write for us ›

"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."

Most of what goes wrong at work was known about beforehand by somebody. The difference is whether anyone did something about it. See you next edition.

— The Safety Newsletter