Awareness Regarding Risks of Drugs and Substance Abuse among Construction Workers

The use of drugs and other intoxicating substances has always been a widespread issue in the construction industry leading to the loss in productivity, cost over-runs, legal issues, and absenteeism, in addition to fatal accidents and deaths. In particular, laborers working under the influence of intoxicating substances are also harmful to the construction business in terms of possible economic losses caused by an accident. The current systems of mitigation like written policies, awareness programs, and drug testing prevalent in the industry may curb the problem to a certain extent but they too have their limitations and drawbacks. This study conducted a survey of industry experts (academicians closely associated with the industry) and professionals to examine: 1) the major impacts of substance abuse in the construction industry, 2) the awareness of industry professionals regarding the issue, and 3) the feasibility and efficiency of the current practices in its mitigation. The objective of the study was to explore the three above mentioned areas through the survey, and to verify whether the findings are in support of the facts obtained from the literature study of previous research in this area. It was concluded in this study that there is a considerable gap in the level of awareness regarding drug risk among construction professionals working at various positions. In addition, the present systems adopted by the industry, as mentioned above, to put a check on substance abuse are not adequate and a more versatile method is required.