Following a record number of opioid-related deaths in 2021, the province of Ontario is launching a program to provide free-of-cost naloxone kits, along with training, to workplaces with a risk of opioid overdose among employees.
The past year, the number of people who died from the opioid crisis was 2819, the highest since 366 in the year 2003. Construction employed 30 per cent of those workers who died last year—an industry seeing the highest impact than any other.
Naloxone is a medication that can momentarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and restore breathing within a period of two to five minutes, allowing for emergency services to arrive.
“Our new Workplace Naloxone Program, as part of our Narcotic Transition Services, will save lives,” says Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. “Everyone in Ontario deserves access to these kits, and this innovative program will bring a new level of safety to our province’s workplaces.”
For up to two years, Ontario will provide free nasal spray naloxone kits to businesses at risk of opioid overdoses through the Workplace Naloxone Program, alongside free training needed to equip staff with the tools to respond to an opioid overdose.
Businesses can determine if they are eligible for the program and find additional information on accessing naloxone kits and training at Ontario.ca/workplacenaloxone. Once the requirement is in effect, Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s inspectors will take an education-first approach to enforcement.
On June 1st, 2023, at-risk employers will be required by legislation to ensure their workplaces have life-saving naloxone kits and workers are trained on how to use them. This includes employers who become aware, or ought reasonably to be aware, that there may be a risk of an opioid overdose in their workplace (i.e., if a worker discloses an opioid use issue, if needles or other opioid paraphernalia are found at the workplace, or if they are otherwise given information that would lead them to reasonably conclude there is a risk of an overdose in the workplace). To protect the health and safety of workers in Ontario, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development has hired more than a hundred new inspectors to build the largest workplace inspectorate in the province’s history, and increased occupational health and safety fines to the highest level in the country.
