When we talk about safety in the workplace, we talk about prevention of fall hazards, construction safety, prevention of electrocutions and other types of hazards. Very rarely do we talk about worker fatigue and stress as being a major hazard in the work place. Yet, many of the accidents that workers are involved in every year, can ultimately be traced to their fatigue levels at the time.
It has taken a while for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to come out openly and address the issue of worker fatigue. Now, OSHA administrator Doctor David Michaels has admitted that long work hours and worker fatigue is a major source of concern. The agency says that it has received petitions from consumer and safety advocacy groups like Public Citizen, to initiate legislative action to address the issue.
Doctor Michaels makes special note of the kind of stress that medical residents are put through. These people work insanely long hours, and the stress and fatigue places them at a higher risk of making errors. This kind of stress can also be seen across several industries. An investigation into the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion found that worker fatigue caused by long working hours possibly contributed to the explosion.
Working for long hours without sufficient rest means that workers are tired, stressed and fatigued. In a state like this, workers are more likely to make errors that endanger not only their safety, but also the safety of other workers at the facility.
I would like for Doctor Michaels to seriously take up the issue of worker fatigue and study how prevalent this is in the American workplace. I think we’ll find that there are thousands of injuries every year from accidents caused because a worker simply dozed off.
Vuk Vujasinovic is a Houston work accident lawyer, representing injured victims of workplace and industrial accidents around Texas and nationwide.
Image Courtesy: Flickr – Mr Thomas
Vuk Vujasinovic is a Board Certified Houston personal injury attorney who practices Houston auto accident and other personal injury cases.
For more info on how Vuk can help you with your potential case please call him at (877) 724-7800 or fill out the contact form on the right.
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