Alcohol - and drug at work: Strategies for prevention and management

Introduction
Alcohol and drug use at work represent today one of the principal causes of work injuries and are responsible for the marginalization of many subjects from the world of work. These behaviours have impacts on many groups including government, service providers, employers, employees and their co-workers, families, and the social and financial costs are borne across the community. As also the ILO underlines, the alcohol/drugs abuse at work should be faced without any discrimination like any other health problem: not only with repressive measures but also with assistance programmes to address workers to treatments and to guarantee the effective workers’ reintegration.

Methods
We analyzed the Italian legislation on the subject with a view to identify ethical, deontological and privacy protection aspects, as well as specific procedures to protect worker’s occupational health and safety (OHS).

Results
The current law considers alcohol and drug consumption like any other health risk at work. Therefore, all the duties set by applicable safety regulations should be carried out: assessment, management and prevention. Art. 15 of Law n. 125/01 and the implementing measures concerning alcohol and psychotropic substances were confirmed by the Decree 81/08, which provided health surveillance programmes to verify “…absence of alcohol dependence and drug consumption”.

Discussion
Training and information programmes directed at workers, safety personnel and employers are important, as demonstrated by the indications of international organizations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) which sees the uselessness of screening tests if not associated with specific prevention actions. A comprehensive management of alcohol- and drug- related problems at the workplace requires a proper “prevention policy” to be specifically adapted to individual enterprises, with the effective involvement of the bodies within the National Health Service.