HealthWatch Contents: 4, 5 – Fatigue – Case studies Dear Seafarer, The UK government ran a road safety campaign under the banner “Think! Don’t drive tired.” Research has shown that drivers don’t fall asleep without warning. Drivers who fall asleep at the wheel have often tried to fight off drowsiness by opening a window or by turning up the radio. This doesn’t work for long. Does this sound familiar? Being aware of fatigue, recognising the symptoms and overcoming the effects, will prevent accidents on board ship. The road safety campaign research revealed that 20% of road accidents on major roads in the UK were sleep-related and sleep-related accidents are more likely than others to result in a fatality or serious injury. Chronic fatigue among seafarers has been the cause of a number of accidents over the years. High profile accidents involving fatigue include EXXON VALDEZ, CITTA and PASHA BULKER and the issue of fatigue is also of critical importance given the shortage of experienced seafarers in the industry. As shipping has become increasingly intensive, with smaller crews and shorter time in port, seafarers can be working long and irregular hours. There are many reasons why they can be short of sleep, which could include the noise and vibration on the ship and the number of port calls and cargo handling operations. All of these can reduce the ability of the seafarer to gain quality sleep during rest periods. P&I incident reports frequently make a causal connection between fatigue in the individual involved in the accident and the events leading up to the accident. Fatigue management needs to be high on the agenda of everyone involved in the adventure. For the seafarer, it means being able to identify the causes of fatigue and to work towards taking appropriate and early measures to prevent it. We hope that this edition of Health Watch will raise awareness of the risks associated with fatigue and help all of us to reduce the number of accidents caused by fatigue. If you have any questions or comments about any of the articles in this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us at the email address on the back cover. Volume 4 Issue 2 May 2015 HealthWatch 6, 7 Ways to combat fatigue 8 Where can you get advice? 2, 3 – What is fatigue? – Project Horizon Fighting fatigue Britannia Health Watch Volume 4 Issue 2 May 2015 2 What is fatigue? There is no comprehensive technical definition of fatigue, although it is generally understood to be a state of acute mental and/or physical tiredness in which there is a progressive decline in performance and alertness. The term is often used interchangeably with ‘sleepiness’, ‘tiredness’ and ‘drowsiness’. The Director of the Ministry of Health in Pakistan, writing in the Nautical Institute’s Seaways magazine has said: “Fatigue is counted as a contributor to many accidents yet we fail to treat it with the seriousness it deserves. It is linked to the issues of personal safety and to accident prevention on board ship. The situation is worsened by the fact that symptoms of fatigue often cannot be detected in regular medical examination of seafarers.” HealthWatch HealthWatch How to spot signs of fatigue ✚Inability to stay awake ✚Clumsiness ✚Headaches and giddiness ✚Loss of appetite ✚Insomnia ✚Moodiness and needless worrying ✚Poor judgment of distance, speed, time and risk ✚Slow responses and difficulty concentrating Risk factors for seafarers ✚Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep ✚Insufficient rest time betwe