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FIGHTING THE DANGERS OF FATIGUE AT WORK
In April, three air traffic controllers in Knoxville, Miami and Seattle were fired for sleeping while working. Although your workers might not have the level of safety responsibility of an air traffic controller, fatigue can cause accidents at any workplace. Here are some suggestions to reduce fatigue and improve safety.
Fatigue results from physical or mental exertion and can impair performance. A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that nearly 40 percent of U.S. workers experience fatigue. Of the nearly 29,000 employed adults interviewed, 38 percent said they had experienced "low levels of energy, poor sleep or a feeling of fatigue" during the previous two weeks. Total lost productive time averaged 5.6 hours per week for fatigued workers, compared to 3.3 hours for their counterparts without fatigue. According to Clockwork Consultants, a UK-based company that helps enterprises manage fatigue risk, fatigued employees are also three times more likely to have an accident at work. HOW FATIGUE AFFECTS SAFETY
Why are fatigued employees more likely to be involved in accidents? A recent article in the New York Times described a study of subjects' response to sleeplessness while performing a psychomotor vigilance task, or PVT. This repetitive task measures attentiveness and allows researchers to accurately measure response to different levels of sleep deprivation. Subjects who had eight hours of sleep nightly over the 14-day study performed well, with hardly any attention lapses or cognitive declines. In subjects who had four or six hours of sleep nightly, performance declined steadily over the course of the study. Members of both groups did steadily worse on memory tests as the study progressed, and a significant number of even those who had gotten six hours of sleep nightly were falling asleep on task. In sum, individuals vary in their tolerance to sleeplessness, but workers who are consistently getting less than eight hours of sound sleep per night could be working at less than peak attention and become more accident-prone. FIGHTING THE FATIGUE FACTOR
Many safety-critical occupations have strict rules governing working hours and breaks. Productivity experts recommend similar guidelines for most jobs. If extended hours/overtime are common, managers should calculate the time required for commuting, meal preparation, eating and socializing with family when setting work shifts. For night shift and rotating shift workers, employers may also provide prepared meals and facilities where employees can nap when they are tired. Proper working conditions can also reduce fatigue risk. Fatigue is increased by dim lighting or other limited visual conditions, high temperatures, high noise, high comfort, tasks that must be sustained for long periods, and monotonous tasks. Eliminating such conditions and providing environments with good lighting, comfortable temperatures and reasonable noise levels reduce risk, according to a study by the Canadian Centre of Occupational Health and Safety (COHS). If possible, work tasks should also provide a variety of interest and change throughout the shift, the COHS recommends. A variety of methods can help make your workplace "fatigue safe." The most common include: · Training workers to understand their personal levels of fatigue · Developing "fatigue safe" work schedules, complying with any applicable regulations · Developing fatigue risk management policies and procedures · Investigating fatigue-related accidents · Creating committees to oversee fatigue management programs For more suggestions on reducing fatigue in the workplace, please call the PCOC Insurance Program department at Jenkins Insurance Services at (877) 860-7378. |
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