Construction and extraction
The job that gets finished is not always the body that can keep going.
CDC researchers looking at 2020 death certificates found construction and extraction occupations had the highest drug-overdose mortality of any major job group — 162.6 deaths per 100,000 workers. Roofers, drywall installers, and painters sat even higher inside that group.
That is not a character study of a trade. NIOSH has been blunt about the pathway: injuries that get treated with opioids, little paid sick leave, precarious hours, and a workplace that rewards showing up hurt. SAMHSA’s industry report (2008–2012 combined) already put construction near the top for heavy alcohol use (16.5% of full-time workers) and for past-year substance use disorder (14.3% in that period).
If this is your trade
A residential stay is weeks off a site. Ask any program whether they have treated people who work heights, heat, and tools — not as marketing, as logistics. Who holds the union book. What happens to a CDL. Whether detox is on site, because alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal is medical work, not toughness.
If this is your family
The person may not look like the ads. They may still be working. Specific observations travel further than a lecture: missed days after injury, pills left from a fall, the cooler that is no longer just a cooler. You cannot force a licensed program to admit someone who refuses assessment. You can call SAMHSA and you can read the family guide.
Sources: CDC / NIOSH occupational overdose analyses; Bush & Lipari, SAMHSA CBHSQ Report, 16 April 2015. Educational only. Not a diagnosis or a placement.