For decades, safety professionals have secured every hazard on the worksite — chemicals, machinery, confined spaces — while a quieter risk has sat largely unaddressed in home medicine cabinets. Prescription opioids and benzodiazepines, when diverted to family members or household visitors, can set off a chain of harm that eventually reaches the workplace through caregiver stress, absenteeism, and impaired performance. EHS professionals are now being called to extend their prevention mindset into this domestic frontier — not by intruding on medical privacy, but by treating medication safety as
EHS Professionals Should Expand Behavioral Health Focus to Include Medication Safety
Unauthorized access to prescription medications can lead to substance misuse in family members, creating caregiver stress and potential extended absences from work for affected employees.