Drinking Focus of Employer Brochure
For Immediate Release
September 20, 1999
For Additional Information Contact:
Michael Mullet
Community Relations Coordinator
(616) 336-2220
DRINKING AND DRIVING FOCUS OF EMPLOYER BROCHURE
The Healthy Kent 2000 Substance Abuse Implementation Team has developed a publication for local businesses about drinking and driving and its impact on the workplace. The four-page fold-out brochure, which encourages businesses to develop a drinking and drug workplace policy, has been endorsed by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
According to a 1998 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, most alcohol-related work performance problems are not from employees drinking while at work, but from drinking before work, during the lunch hour, or from being hung over from heavy drinking the night before. Light to moderate drinkers as a group are responsible for 59% of work performance problems. The cost of lost productivity due to alcohol and other drugs is in the billions of dollars annually in the U.S.
Although alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths and injuries have declined in recent years in Kent County, health officials speculate that the decline may be attributed in part to safer cars many of which now feature driver and passenger airbags, as well as side-impact door beams. Increased enforcement of drunken driving laws coupled with stiffer penalties has also likely provided a deterrent to many. Still, some 20 people are killed, and another 625 are injured, in alcohol-related crashes each year in Kent County.
The publication developed by the Healthy Kent Substance Abuse Implementation Team urges employers and business owners to confront the impact of drinking and drug use on the workplace by developing drug-free workplace policies and implementing Employee Assistance Programs. The brochure, which is being mailed to over 3000 local business owners, also provides a list of resources for employers, as well as ideas which can be implemented right away.
The employer brochure was developed locally, and made possible through a grant from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning and the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Focus on Substance Abuse - Community Healthwatch report cards (One page report, PDF file - 26kb)
