As the B.C. Coroners Service parses the latest overdose death statistics it has noticed something that may further help the fight against the crisis.

B.C. Coroners Service spokesperson Andy Watson says while they have known for a while the most at risk group is men using alone they now know to some degree where they work.

“A lot of the men that are dying using alone are men that work in the trades and transport industry. One of the things we are going to do in the new year is we are going to reach out to some of our other partners. So we can look into what we can do specifically with this industry to try and help make some headway. How can we provide our data in a way that will help make some decisions aimed at trying to prevent death in similar circumstances.”

Watson says there is some good news among the grim with officials in Denver taking notice there have been no overdose deaths at any of the overdose prevention or supervised consumption sites in B.C.

“They have tried out the supervised consumption sites because they have seen the success here. That is really a success story out of what is otherwise a fairly bleak story since early 2016 when this crisis really kicked off.”

With 1,380 illicit drug overdose deaths year to date the province is on track to meet or exceed last year’s record 1,486 overdose deaths.