A substantial body of literature indicates that shift workers have a significantly higher risk of workplace accidents and injuries, compared to workers in regular daytime schedules. This can be ...attributed to work during nights which require workers to stay awake during normal sleeping hours and sleep during natural waking hours, leading to circadian desynchronization, sleep disruption and cognitive impairment. A fatigue-risk trajectory model developed by Dawson and McCulloch has been used to describe the series of events which may precede fatigue-related incidents. This includes insufficient sleep opportunities, impaired sleep, fatigue-behavioral symptoms, and fatigue-related errors. The purpose of this paper is to provide examples of control measures along each level of the fatigue-risk trajectory, which include: (i) work scheduling strategies to include breaks for adequate sleep opportunities; (ii) training and educational programs to help workers make best use of recovery times for quality sleep; (iii) fatigue-detection devices to alert workers and safety managers of fatigue-related behaviors and errors. A brief introduction to Fatigue-Risk Management systems is also included as a long-term sustainable strategy to maintain shift worker health and safety. The key statements in this paper represent a consensus among the Working Time Society regarding a multi-level approach to managing occupational sleep-related fatigue.
Fatigue is regarded as a major contributor to workplace and highway morbidity and mortality. While the scientific literature is replete with studies that can be traced back more than a hundred years, ...much remains to be done to improve our knowledge of and ability to alleviate the consequences of fatigue. Moreover, given the dramatic transformation of modern work systems due to a global and 24/7 economy, there is increasing urgency in improving our understanding of fatigue as a safety risk factor, its etiology and management. As a result, a
Hopkinton Conference was organized to review the state of knowledge in the area and define future directions for research aimed at preventing or mitigating the consequences of fatigue. The
Hopkinton Conference paradigm brings together leading experts on a key research area to define scientific gaps and research needs, and serves as a stimulus for further collaboration. Over the course of several months prior to the conference, participants draft state-of-the-art reviews covering various aspects of the research topic. In this case, five working groups were formed, each charged with developing collaborative manuscripts in a given topic area of interest, as follows: the Link Between Fatigue and Safety, Demographic Issues in Fatigue, Predicting Fatigue, Technological Approaches in the Management of Fatigue, and Organizational Factors in the Management of Fatigue. The participants then convened for a 2 day conference at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton to review, debate, and revise the draft manuscripts; examine global issues; and discuss research priorities. The output from this collective effort is captured in this special issue of
Accident Analysis and Prevention.
Although there has been a significant amount of research on fatigue globally, it remains a major contributor to workplace and highway mortality and morbidity. Given its importance, a
Hopkinton ...Conference was organized to review and discuss the state of knowledge in the area and to define future directions for research aimed at preventing or mitigating the consequences of fatigue. In all, five groups of international contributors produced six articles for this special issue, comprising state of the art reviews, along with a discussion of knowledge gaps and future research needs. In this concluding paper, we capture some of the major outcomes and recommendations from this process. These are organized into five topic areas: the link between fatigue and safety, demographic issues in fatigue, modeling and predicting fatigue, technological approaches to fatigue management, and organizational factors in fatigue management.
Abstract Introduction In an evolving environment, new factors like artificial intelligence (AI) are creating emerging physical and psychosocial risks to a safe and healthy working environment. New ...technologies like AI need to be introduced mindfully to avoid negative unintended consequences. Materials and Methods The specific risks from the above factors that could impact workers are being identified by researchers and educators in occupational health. There is urgency to get ahead of potential harm. Two case examples will be discussed which have received much recent attention. Results Potential risks at work arise from: (1) using AI in human resources departments to offset human tasks involved in managing worker’s performance (people analytics). If the algorithms are improperly trained and do not include human interventions and ethical considerations in their formulation, workers could be exposed to increased physical and psychosocial risks and stress. (2) the vision of Industry 5.0, where the human and automation work together as collaborative robots (cobots). While there are certain advantages to allowing this synthetic pairing, there are also risks, including robot / human collisions, where the robot may perform in unpredictable ways. Conclusions Occupational health and safety experts will need: (1) better understanding and training in both - the effects of people analytics on workers, and of the actual algorithms themselves; and (2) to collaborate with engineers, psychologists and sociologists in the design of cobots’ dynamics to make sure that risks are minimized from the beginning. A risk framework and potential mitigations will be presented.
This paper focuses on the development of fatigue risk management systems (FRMS) in the transport sector. The evolution of regulatory frameworks is traced, from uni-dimensional hours of service ...regulations through to frameworks that enable multi-dimensional FRMS. These regulatory changes reflect advances in understanding of human error in the aetiology of accidents, and in fatigue and safety science. Implementation of FRMS shifts the locus of responsibility for safety away from the regulator towards companies and individuals, and requires changes in traditional roles. Organizational, ethnic, and national culture need to be considered. Recent trends in the work environment have potential to adversely affect FRMS, including precarious employment and shortages of skilled labour. Essential components of an FRMS, and examples of FRMS in different transport modes, are described. It is vital that regulators, employer, and employees have an understanding of the causes and consequences of fatigue that is sufficient for them to meet their responsibilities in relation to FRMS. While there is a strong evidence base supporting the principles of FRMS, experience with implementation is more limited. The evidence base for effective implementation will expand, since FRMS is data-driven, and ongoing evaluation is integral. We strongly advocate that experience be shared wherever possible.
PDF
