Cent Eur J Public Health 2019, 27(3):195-197 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a5857

Alcohol, drugs and psychotropic medication at work: guidelines for medical fitness

Milan Tuček1, Alenka Škerjanc2
1 Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
2 University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Clinical Institute for Occupational, Traffic and Sports Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Alcohol and illicit drug use in the workplace is a relatively widespread but still insufficiently recognised phenomenon. The reliability of judgement and performance of workers especially undertaking safety-critical tasks must not be influenced by physical, mental and/or behavioural disturbances. It is the responsibility of a company to define and implement proper policy for managing safety risks related to the influence of alcohol, drugs and/or psychotropic medication. Occupational physicians are already involved in the process of prevention in these matters. Authors describe basic recommendations of two biggest international associations of occupational physicians in this field because workers may not perform safety-critical tasks under the influence of psychotropic substances such as alcohol, illicit drugs and psychotropic medication.

Keywords: alcohol, illicit drugs, psychotropic substances, medical examination, testing, medical fitness

Received: June 18, 2019; Revised: July 30, 2019; Accepted: July 30, 2019; Published: September 30, 2019  Show citation

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Tuček M, Škerjanc A. Alcohol, drugs and psychotropic medication at work: guidelines for medical fitness. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2019;27(3):195-197. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5857. PubMed PMID: 31580553.
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