Steroids on the Job: An Emerging Problem
A major shift in steroid and performance-enhancing drug abuse is occurring, and the next place it emerges will be in the workplace.
ATHLETES and steroids have become a sad combination in modern Olympic and professional sports worldwide. It seems as if a day cannot go by without some reported scandal of an athlete abusing steroids or some other performance-enhancing compound to gain a competitive advantage. Photographs of bodybuilders from the 1950s bear no resemblance to modern bodybuilders, whose bloated muscles defy the image of what a well-exercised and -developed human body should look like.
Without a doubt, steroids are a major problem in modern sport--so much so that some experts suggest discarding all of the records in recent years until a fail-safe method of ensuring that all athletes are drug-free is fully implemented. This discussion is currently circling around Barry Bonds as he approaches breaking Hank Aaron's career record of home runs. Football players, soccer players, weightlifters, and even badminton players have been caught abusing steroids. But a major shift in steroid and performance-enhancing drug abuse is occurring, and the next place it emerges will be in the workplace.
Consider the two guys on the loading dock who work out almost daily together or the teenage interns working at your company this summer with the lean and sexy look pushed so hard by the media today. Could the guys be using steroids to gain strength (and the girls for cosmetic purposes) to gain that lean look? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The abuse of performance-enhancing drugs that once were thought to be the exclusive province of elite athletes is now moving into all sectors of our society and, therefore, our workplaces.
What are the consequences if employees choose to abuse steroids on their own time for improved strength or body image? What impact does that have on the workplace? Presently, the answer to that question is unknown because steroids are not tested in the non-sports workplace, nor are there studies surveying workplace steroid abuse. However, experts in this area estimate there are between 1 million and 3 million former or current abusers of steroids in the United States. Also, there are compelling studies suggesting the abuse of steroids approaches 10 percent of high school males and females as young as 13 years old and that steroids are being abused by young adults who are not professional athletes. These studies were done a few years ago, which suggests those high-school steroid users who are not in professional sports are now in the workplace.
Big Changes from 1990 to 2006
The Steroids Working Group to the United States Sentencing Commission published its "2006 Steroids Report" in March of that year. The report discusses the legislative history of acts passed by Congress to crack down on steroid abuses, mainly in professional and amateur athletics. The commission had issued a 1990 report, and its members decided in April 2005 to conduct more research to update that document.
The 1990 report contained eight major findings. Among them were these items: Steroids were then thought to be not physically or psychologically addicting; penalties for steroid offenses had typically resulted in sentences of probation; and steroid offenses were not covered by the federal sentencing guidelines.
The 2006 report found two major differences had taken place since 1990: "First, steroids are now considered potentially addictive, with documented withdrawal symptoms. Second, steroids are primarily distributed through use of the Internet involving international sources." Also, the later report said one-third of illicitly used steroids in 1990 were diverted from legitimate sources in the United States, but "by 2005, illegal diversion represented a very small proportion of illegal steroid distribution."
The 2006 report cited the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Survey (MFS), which examines drug use in grades 8, 10, and 12. The 2005 MFS suggested steroid use was down in the higher grades from, but judging by several surveys' results, the working group concluded steroid use typically remains steady or rises with age. In 2005, 56.8 percent of 12th graders in the MFS sample said taking steroids is a "great risk," but this was below the peak level of 70.7 percent in 1992. And 39.7 percent of 12th graders in 2005 said it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain steroids--down from the peak of 46.8 percent in 1992, and also the first time this response fell below 40 percent, according to the 2006 report.
Only 46 offenders were sentenced for steroid trafficking offenses under the drug trafficking guideline between 2001 and 2005, the report says. Twenty-six of the offenders received probation only. |
This article originally appeared in the August 2007 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.