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Danger in the Driver’s Cab | Obesity and Sleep Apnea | What Licensed Commercial Truck Drivers Can Do | Sleep Apnea Testing with WatchPAT 

Attention Commercial Trucking Safety Administrators

OSA and Commercial Truck Drivers

Put a sleep-deprived person suffering from untreated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) behind the wheel of a car, truck, bus, or in control of a merchant ship or jetliner and it’s a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Among those in this at-risk group include commercial truck drivers, night-shift workers, train engineers, airline pilots, ship captains, and transportation workers.

Sleep apnea denies people the rest that they need,and it’s now a factor in accidents involved in every mode of transportation. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the federal watchdog group for commercial trucking in this country. The recent FMCA figures for large truck accidents are frightening:

  • There are close to 5,000 annual driver deaths, with more than 1,400 due to drowsiness and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
  • Costs due to a large truck crash are more than $75,000. When it’s a fatal crash, costs escalate to almost $3.4 million.

The fragmented, disturbed sleep of many middle-aged adults can often be the result of OSA, one of the most dangerous of all sleep disturbances. This is typically caused by a blockage of the airway due to a collapse of the soft tissue at the back of the throat during sleep. The resulting sleep apnea causes a person’s breathing to be interrupted during sleep, leaving a person momentarily choking and gasping for air. This may occur hundreds of times during sleep, which deprives the brain and other vital organs of life-sustaining oxygen.

When a person finally awakens in the morning, they are fatigued from not having a completely restful, restorative sleep. 

With so many people suffering from sleep apnea and the hundreds of disruptive breathing episodes that comewith it, it’s not surprising that they are constantly fatigued during the day, leaving them susceptible to car and truck accidents whilebehind the wheel. OSA Info Page

Danger

 in the

 Cab

Sleep apnea is one of the major causes of driver fatigue and sleepiness, and is thought to increase the risk of a car or truck accident by two- to seven-fold. What’s more, the havoc and fatalities associated with sleep-related accidents jump exponentially when one of the millions of licensed commercial truck drivers thought to have sleep apnea dozes off while driving an 18-wheeler.

A random study of active commercial truck drivers conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology from 1986 to 1998 revealed the following about the 406 drivers selected to participate in their overnight sleep study:

  • 7% had severe sleep apnea
  • 8% had moderate sleep apnea
  • 21% had mild sleep apnea

The study researchers noted that the prevalence of sleep apnea depended on the relationship of two critical factors: age and the degree of obesity as measured by Body Mass Index, or BMI. As age and BMI increased, so did sleep apnea.

A recent study from Harvard researchers has reconfirmed several previous findings that obesity is often linked with commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea. The 15-month study of 456 commercial drivers reported that 17% had sleep apnea.

The Direct Link: Obesity and Sleep Apnea

The FMCSA—which requires medical certification of all licensed commercial drivers every two years in the United States—is investigating whether or not to screen all obese drivers based on their BMI, and then mandate that all commercial motor vehicle drivers with a BMI of 30 or greater undergo sleep apnea diagnosis.

Being overweight does increase the likelihood of obesity, so do your best to keep your weight in a healthy range—a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight; obesity is a BMI of 30 or more.

If you would like to have your BMI automatically calculated, go to the government website www.nhlbisupport.com

If Your Weight is Creeping Up . . .

Cut Calories and Develop Good Exercise Habits.

 


What Licensed Commercial Truck Drivers Can Do

Although mandatory sleep apnea testing is not yet required for commercial truck drivers, you owe it to yourself to be tested—and treated. It can only help you. Thanks to WatchPAT, you can now take a sleep test at your convenience while on the road and in the comfort of your own cab.

To find out more about sleepapnea testing with the WatchPAT click here

Attention Commercial Trucking Safety Administrators

As you are well aware, there are more than 7 million motor vehicle accidents annually in the U.S., involving well over 3.5 million injuries. If you are a company safety administrator for a commercial trucking company, can you afford to take the risk that any driver in your fleet with potential sleep apnea is not diagnosed and treated?

Unfortunately, drivers are often unaware of their deteriorating health condition and are often motivated to keep driving—even though they are extremely fatigued.

Employers certainly understand that with today’s ever-escalating health care costs, healthy, productive employees mean a healthier bottom line. For this reason, reliable, positive identification home testing for sleep apnea for commercial truck drivers is now available that offers you the all-important Chain of Command you need to ensure the safety of your fleet. This is where you can help—both your drivers andyour company. 

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