This is only a test

Industry gets clean and sober

By Jennifer Pfaff

The sounds of construction filled the air on an ordinary Chicago afternoon.

Above the city's streets, an ironworker on scaffolding did his part to complete a steel-erection job. But, at 1:30 p.m., the ordinary day turned into a nightmare as the ironworker fell from the scaffolding.

His head hit the ground, and while he was lucky to be alive, his life was forever changed. The impact damaged his brain, and the ironworker sued the general contractor.

It was right around that point that Tim Galarnyk entered the picture. A forensic investigator with Eau Claire-based Construction Risk Management Inc., Galarnyk has a resume detailing investigations into thousands of construction-related incidents involving injury and death during the past 30 years.

He avoids calling them accidents, saying the incidents almost always are the result of certain actions and decisions. The case of the Chicago ironworker fell squarely into that category.

"During the lunch hour, we found out, he had four double martinis," Galarnyk said. "His blood-alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit."

There is no shortage of cases for Galarnyk to investigate with about 1,140 construction workers in the United States killed on the job each year. He said the fact that nearly half involve impairment - caused by drugs, alcohol, hangovers and more - turns his stomach.

At least a large portion of the construction deaths that happen each year could be avoided if the industry - and federal government - took impairment as seriously as it should, Galarnyk said.

"The American people are all ticked off that 3,000 people died in three years in Iraq, but 1,100 construction workers die every year, and no one does anything about it," he said.

Wisconsin, in about three months, will do something to reduce the risk that impaired construction workers present to themselves and the general public. The state passed a law requiring that anyone on the job site of a public-works project subject to prevailing-wage law must be part of a formal alcohol- and drug-testing program.

That means any contractor bidding on a state, county or municipal project after May 1 must have and follow a written policy for preventing substance abuse among its employees, said Michael Pyritz, legislative assistant to the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale. The only exception is for state highway projects, which are usually tied to federal funds and the regulations that come with them.

Specifically, each employer's program must include random testing of employees, the ability to test employees based on reasonable suspicion that they are impaired, post-accident testing and pre-job testing.

Employees who test positive for illegal drugs or an alcohol concentration greater than .04 are not to be allowed back to work until passing a subsequent test.

"This strengthens other areas to the point that exists for state highways," Pyritz said. The .04 alcohol limit is the same threshold used to determine when the driver of an 18-wheeler is allowed on the road.

"It would cover everything from the company dealing with the port-a-potties on a fishing lake for the [state Department of Natural Resources] to the UW Systems' biggest building projects."

The measure reflects a mood within the industry, which is finding work-related injury costs to be unmanageable, said Kevin La Mere, who represents about 8,000 steamfitters, plumbers, sprinkler fitters and pipeline utility workers statewide through his roles as president of the Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association and business manager of Steamfitters Local 601 in Milwaukee. The WPTA and the Mechanical Contractors Association of Wisconsin worked with Stone and other legislators to get the bill signed into law.

"Industry is really pushing the safety side of things," La Mere said. "If you think about accidents, workers' compensation, insurance costs - that's really what's driving it."

The WPTA saw a marked decrease in the number of positive tests for prohibited substances since it began its drug- and alcohol-testing program in 2000. About 2.12 percent of WPTA members tested have tested positive. That's about half what is seen in the general population.

La Mere said he believes the decrease is evidence that workers, knowing they could be tested any time, are thinking long and hard before engaging in any activity that might expel them from a job site. Perhaps more convincing yet, WPTA members report a significant reduction in workers' compensation and other injury-related costs.

"Construction companies can cut work-related injuries and compensation costs by 50 percent," La Mere said. "Substance abusers' medical costs are 300 percent more than nonusers."

The pressure for employees to stay clean and sober changed the industry, La Mere said.

"It was never the scope of the problem people would think," he said of alcohol and drug use among construction-trade employees. "It did used to be the case that you'd go to lunch, have a burger and a couple of beers. That's gone now."

The new regulations are pushing the industry in the right direction, Galarnyk said. But, he said, they don't go far enough.

The prevalence of urine tests for detecting drug and alcohol in a worker is a concern because there are ways to trick the test by drinking large quantities of water and urinating frequently beforehand. Blood tests, Galarnyk said, are the best way to assess substance use.

Further, the idea of impairment is too narrowly defined, he said. After all, there are many things that can make a construction worker less efficient, less careful and less in control. Lack of sleep and hangovers can slow reflexes, dull judgment and be just as deadly as using marijuana, Galarnyk said.

And the testing doesn't even cover prescription drugs, he said, recalling another work-site fall he investigated. That incident, Galarnyk said, involved an Alabama worker who was standing on a lift.

The worker was wearing a rubber suit, a necessary safety measure for the task he was assigned. Under the blazing August Alabama sun, the temperature climbed, and the worker passed out for just a second or two, which was long enough for him to fall 28 feet and sustain severe injuries.

The worker was taking medications prescribed to treat high blood pressure. The medication included a diuretic, which, when combined with hot temperatures and physical labor in a rubber suit, caused a sudden drop in blood pressure.

He apparently failed to tell his doctor about the kind of work he did, Galarnyk said. There was nothing illegal about the man's actions, yet he was still impaired.

"I'd like to see the law go further," Galarnyk said, adding that he believes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should be more stringent in regulating legal and illegal drug and alcohol use among construction workers.

He also said he supports applying the Wisconsin law to all projects. More important, he said, people need to start talking openly about the real risks of impairment.

"I've investigated thousands of injuries," Galarnyk said. "People don't understand the lasting effects of alcohol, the fact that one Benedryl triples the alcohol's effect. They should be trained."

After all, he said, when people understand the potential consequences of impairment and how little of a substance needs to be in the body to create impairment, they begin to reconsider their actions.

"A drunk driver who kills someone is guilty of criminal vehicular manslaughter," Galarnyk said. "A drunk crane driver has an accident."