Peter Grave - Deceased - 1938 - 2022
PCS Member
AP, Baltimore – Funeral directors in Maryland are increasingly concerned their employees could be exposed to opioids.
That’s why some are stocking naloxone, the medication the reverses the effects of an overdose.
The Baltimore Sun reported Friday that funeral directors are calling themselves the “last responders” to the opioid epidemic.
The concern is that employees could come into contact with opioids on a dead person’s body or the clothes of a mourner …
‘Last responders’: Maryland’s funeral directors consider stocking opioid overdose antidote Narcan
Baltimore Sun – Tucked between catalogs for embalming fluids and mortuary stretchers, two doses of the opioid antidote naloxone sit in a cabinet near funeral director Jeffrey Gair’s desk.
“It’s just in case,” Gair says he thinks to himself, before locking the cabinet door each night.
The mortician at Peaceful Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Center in Timonium has never opened the plastic casing around the Narcan nasal spray, which is used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Lethal in amounts as small as a grain of salt”
Still, Gair sometimes wonders how much longer his supply will go unused.
As the number of drug-related deaths in Maryland continues to climb, funeral directors are calling themselves the “last responders” to the opioid epidemic.
The moniker represents an anxiety within the central Maryland funeral industry over how aggressive licensed morticians should be in preparing for overdoses at their businesses.
They worry that synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanyl could be on a deceased person’s body or on the clothes of a mourner, inadvertently exposing their staff or guests at the funeral home to danger.
That’s why some are stocking naloxone, the medication the reverses the effects of an overdose.
The Baltimore Sun reported Friday that funeral directors are calling themselves the “last responders” to the opioid epidemic.
The concern is that employees could come into contact with opioids on a dead person’s body or the clothes of a mourner …
‘Last responders’: Maryland’s funeral directors consider stocking opioid overdose antidote Narcan
Baltimore Sun – Tucked between catalogs for embalming fluids and mortuary stretchers, two doses of the opioid antidote naloxone sit in a cabinet near funeral director Jeffrey Gair’s desk.
“It’s just in case,” Gair says he thinks to himself, before locking the cabinet door each night.
The mortician at Peaceful Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Center in Timonium has never opened the plastic casing around the Narcan nasal spray, which is used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Lethal in amounts as small as a grain of salt”
Still, Gair sometimes wonders how much longer his supply will go unused.
As the number of drug-related deaths in Maryland continues to climb, funeral directors are calling themselves the “last responders” to the opioid epidemic.
The moniker represents an anxiety within the central Maryland funeral industry over how aggressive licensed morticians should be in preparing for overdoses at their businesses.
They worry that synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanyl could be on a deceased person’s body or on the clothes of a mourner, inadvertently exposing their staff or guests at the funeral home to danger.