Obesity may drive some truckers to doze

More public safety hazards from being too fat.

"An effort to curb drowsiness among truck drivers could gain ground next month when the federal agency that regulates truckers acts on medical findings regarding a sleep disorder.

The medical review board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will finalize recommendations about truckers and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on April 7, says Maggi Gunnels, the agency's director of medical programs.

People who have the condition wake up frequently during sleep because the disorder causes their airways to partially close. The constant awakening, once every minute or two in severe cases, makes them unusually drowsy during their waking periods. That could be especially risky for drivers of big rigs.

A major contributor to the condition is obesity, says Allan Pack, director of the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and adviser to the medical review board. The board is expected to recommend that commercial truckers be required to undergo a sleep study once they reach a certain level of obesity.

If the agency approves, drivers would have to be treated for the condition to get certified. Treatment can include surgery or the use of a mask during sleep that delivers air into the airway...

Clinical studies have shown that commercial truck drivers have a higher incidence of the most severe form of OSA — 20%-30%, compared with 2% of women over age 40 and 4% of men over 40, says David Rapoport, medical director of the New York University School of Medicine Sleep Disorders Center.

Multiple studies have shown that automobile drivers who have sleep apnea have a 2½ times greater risk of being in a crash, Pack says. "And the crashes you get into tend to be fairly severe," he says, adding that no studies have been done on the crash risk of commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea."

Time for MAFD (Mothers Against Fat Drivers) and FAFD to get involved.