Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | December 9, 2019 | wbjournal.com C E N T R A L M AS S I N B R I E F Unexpected deaths on the rise in Massachusetts V E R BAT I M Curry consolidation "We've reached the point where communication is so ubiquitous, it makes sense to streamline our op- erations to one location. The fact is that over 95% of our clients order via email, phone and our website. Technology has made the world a smaller place." Peter Gardner, president of Curry Printing, which in November closed its Worcester business center to consolidate all its operations into its Westborough headquarters WooSox logo "More than 1,000 people sent in 218 suggestions with names like the Rockets, the Dirt Dogs, the Gritty Kitties, and even one from Holy Cross, the Holy Sox, but what beats the WooSox?" Worcester Red Sox President Charles Steinberg, in officially announcing the baseball team's nickname as WooSox during a logo-unveiling event 3Cross reopening "We're trying to get the word out that we're back and hope people haven't forgotten about us." Dave Howland, founder of Worcester brewery 3cross Fermentation Cooperative, which is reopening in its Knowlton Avenue location after shutting down in February T he mortality rate in Massachusetts has risen 12.1% since 2010, the 13th highest such increase in the country, a startling increase due in large part to the opioid epidemic and a rising suicide rate. New mortality-rate data released in November in a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a widespread health problem across the United States, with all but two states showing a mortality rate increase, a sign of unexpected deaths. Massachusetts still has among the better mortality rates in the country, ranking eighth with 291.8 premature deaths per 100,000 people each year. e state's rising mortality rate has brought an estimated 1,155 extra deaths from 2010 to 2017, according to the study. e mortality rate in 2017 was the highest since 2003, when it was 306.2. November's report didn't specify the specific reasons behind any state's rising premature deaths, but pointed to major causes including drug overdoses, diabetes, heart disease, alcohol-related liver disease – most of which are rising, leading to a drop in the American life expectancy following decades of improvement. Massachusetts had more than 2,000 opioid-related deaths in each of the past three years, up from just 375 in 2000, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. e state's broader drug overdose rate more than quadrupled in less than 20 years, placing it ninth nationally in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. e state's suicide rate – 10 per 100,000 in the most recent three-year period – rose 35% from 1999 to 2016, among the sharpest increases nationally during that time, CDC data shows. Despite the data in the Journal of the American Medical Association report, a state Department of Public Health report in December 2018 showed the state's life expectancy rate breaking a national downward trend, rising to 80 years and eight months in 2016. Nationwide, the life expectancy was 78 years and seven months. e Massachusetts life expectancy rate peaked in 2012 and 2013 at 80 years and 11 months. Like Massachusetts, New England has among the nation's best mortality rates, ranking second out of nine regions in the report, behind only the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. But the region's 13% mortality rate increase since 2010 is the highest in the country. Nationwide, the mortality rate rose 6%, representing an extra 33,307 deaths in the eight years ending in 2017. BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor W

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