August 04, 2018
Those most likely to be exposed, such as police and fire personnel, EMTs, ER staff, and forensic lab personnel, should be transitioning to gloves that provide comprehensive protection against fentanyl.
The ongoing drug epidemic in the United States is getting worse by the day. Drug overdoses claimed the lives of more than 64,000 people in this country in 2016—an increase of 21 percent over 2015. Opioids were responsible for some 42,000 of those deaths and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, were responsible for almost half of that number. In fact, synthetic opioids are driving the extreme spike in drug fatalities. The 20,000 deaths traced to synthetic opioids in 2016 were more than double the total in 2015, and overdose deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone have increased an average of 88 percent each year since 2013. We are losing the war on drugs, and fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are the biggest reasons why.
Fentanyl is estimated to be 50 to