Drugs and alcohol misuse can have a detrimental effect on performance at work and can reduce an individual’s capacity to work safely. You need to assess the risks of misuse at work and also the impacts this may have on your business and ensure that you have adequate policies for dealing with its occurrence.
It is worth noting that about 20 percent of the adult population drink at levels likely to harm health and 25 percent of the population have used drugs at some point (rising to 50 percent for 16-25 year olds).
There are three classes of illicit drugs: class A (includes heroin), class B (includes cannabis) and class C (includes valium). 80 percent of illicit drug use is cannabis. Other substances can be misused including over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, lighter fuel and solvents (see below) and mushrooms.
Remember while you may have arrangements for dealing with abuse of prescription and/or illegal drugs and alcohol there are also workplace substances, e.g. solvents and other volatile substances that have the potential to be misused by employees.
Solvent misuse
Solvent misuse involves the inhalation of vapours from a range of substances, which then enter the body via the lungs, providing easy access to the blood system and the rapid onset of effects.
The range of such products includes common solvents such as toluene, hexanes, heptanes, ethyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene. These chemicals act as cerebral depressants and have other potential health risks.
Butane gas lighter refills account for a significant proportion of the deaths due to substance misuse.
Effects
Consumption of many of the substances referred to above can lead to:
- loss of productivity and poor performance;
- increased lateness and absenteeism;
- increased likelihood of accidents;
- detrimental effects on team morale and employee relations;
- bad behaviour and poor discipline;
- adverse effects on company image and customer relations; and
- increased likelihood of dishonesty and theft (to fund an expensive habit).
Legal responsibilities
With respect to your legal responsibilities, drugs and alcohol misuse at work could fall under sections 2,3 and 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA); the need to do a suitable and sufficient risk assessment under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSW) and also the Road Traffic Act 1988. There are also legal responsibilities under the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act (DPA) that are relevant when considering drug testing.
If you knowingly allow an employee to consume alcohol or misuse drugs or substances while at work and his or her behaviour places themselves or others at risk, you may be at risk of enforcement action.
Below we refer to safety-critical work and this can sometimes be difficult to define. Safety-critical work is when, because of risks to the individuals concerned or others, the employees need to have full, unimpaired control of their physical and/or mental capabilities. We would suggest that, in the manufacturing sector, the following may be appropriate:
- regular driving of vehicles in operational duties;
- working on, or in the vicinity of, electrical and mechanical systems;
- working at height or in confined spaces;
- working with any plant or equipment; and
- managing safety-critical control systems (e.g. in a major-hazard plant control room; this ensures inclusion of those employees who can indirectly affect safe working).
HSE recommends that you:
- write a drugs and alcohol policy in consultation with your employees or their representatives (see Note 2);
- produce, again in association with your employees or their representatives, an action plan to implement the agreed policy;
- put the action plan into place; and then
- check that the policy is being followed and that the various elements of your action plan are being maintained in an active manner.