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Safety Focus of the Week: Sleep Apnea and Fitness for Duty
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder medical condition related to your breathing passages. Problems with sleep apnea raise a concern for fitness of duty because the person may be tired or drowsy during work hours due to the poor quality of sleep. Physicians performing DOT Exams look for risks factors such as age, weight, neck size, smoking/alcohol use, ethnicity, et cetera. Fortunately, sleep apnea can generally be treated.
NIH has a short video explaining the disorder on their website:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea
The FMCSA also has a bulletin related to sleep apnea and driving:
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Driving-Sleep-Apnea.pdf
