More than 20 million Americans suffer from a potentially fatal sleep disorder and most of them are not aware they have a problem. Yet the consequences of untreated sleep apnea can be severe, ranging from unexplained fatigue to heart disease, hypertension, stroke, even premature death.
The disorder is a common cause of automobile and on-the-job accidents. Mood disorders, sexual dysfunction and cognitive difficulties can also result from untreated sleep apnea.
People with sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while sleeping, sometimes as often as 100 times in an hour. This disruption deprives a person of both sleep and oxygen and triggers the body's stress response. Over time this leads to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Do you snore? Are you often tired during the day? Are you overweight? Loud, heavy snoring is the hallmark of sleep apnea and the sleeping partners of those affected are often the first to notice. Other signs of sleep apnea are high blood pressure and physical abnormality in the nose, throat or other parts of the upper airway. Sleep apnea may also be genetically based.
The good news is that treatment is available. Behavior therapy, mechanical devices, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), oral appliances and surgery are all used to treat the problem.
For an in-depth overview of sleep apnea, how if affects CDL drivers along with various ways to detect it and treat it, visit the Sleep Apnea page of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's website by clicking here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
Investigations have found that tens of thousands of CDL truck drivers remain on the road, despite medical conditions that should disqualify them. Last month reporters found several instances where medically unfit drivers had caused fatal crashes. The driver in one fatal Ohio crash had 27 different prescription drugs in his cab, although none were detected in his blood. His medical certificate had expired just a week earlier.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2007 that truck drivers' heart attacks or other physical impairments were responsible for some 4,000 serious truck crashes from April 2001 through December 2003, while another 5,000 were caused by drivers falling asleep. Researchers estimate that more than 28 percent of all truckers suffer from sleep apnea to some degree.
Last summer, congressional investigators reported that one out of three medical certificates examined at roadside stops could not be verified -- either the doctors who signed the certificates could not be found or they denied ever conducting an exam claimed by a driver.
Under current law, commercial drivers are required to carry a copy of their medical certificate with them as proof of having passed the exam. But state regulators have no way to verify the information on the document in real time. In Ohio, for instance, commercial driver's licenses are issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, but medical certification is handled by the state Public Utilities Commission. "We have no means to verify a certificate when we have a driver stopped alongside the road for an inspection," said PUC official Milan Orbovich. "We have a big level of concern."
Federal officials say that out of 3.4 million roadside inspections in 2007, there were more than 145,000 citations issued to drivers who did not have a copy of their medical certificate, more than 42,000 who had expired certificates and another 4,300 with improper certificates. Blank medical-certificate cards are easily downloaded from government Web sites, and there are no safeguards to keep a driver from filling out his or her own medical papers. They can pick a doctor's name from the phone book, sign the certificate themselves and look up the medical provider's license number online.
Under rules adopted in January, the FMCSA will require drivers to send a copy of their medical certificates to state driver-licensing agencies. Those agencies will then merge the medical information on an electronic record in the national commercial-driver-license database. This new regulation is to be fully up and running in 2012. The three-year delay is needed to give state DMVs time to set up new recordkeeping and storage systems. Once it's in place, the system will make it much harder for drivers to either falsify exams or "doctor shop" for examiners who will pass over problems that should keep them from behind the wheel of 80,000-pound rigs.
The new system is not foolproof, but it will be a considerable improvement and be safer for both the truckers and the motorists with whom they share the roads.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
A recent study has confirmed that obesity-driven testing strategies identify CDL drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and suggests that mandating OSA screenings could reduce the risk of truck crashes.
"Truck drivers with sleep apnea are much more likely to fall asleep at the wheel, and the condition is increasingly common as Americans become more obese," said the study's senior author, Stefanos N. Kales, MD. "Additionally, we found that drivers who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea frequently underreport symptoms and diagnoses and often do not follow through with sleep study referrals and sleep apnea treatment."
OSA is a syndrome characterized by sleep-disordered breathing, resulting in excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, psychomotor deficits, and disrupted nighttime sleep. It increases the risk of a vehicular accident by two- to seven-fold, and is common among truck drivers. Approximately 2.4 - 3.9 million licensed commercial drivers in the U.S. are expected to have OSA. In addition to being unrecognized or unreported by drivers, OSA often remains undiagnosed by many primary care clinicians despite the fact that OSA increases the risks of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and heart disease.
The study, funded in part by the FMCSA and published by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, has significant policy ramifications, as the FMCSA is already deliberating recommendations to require sleep apnea screening for all obese drivers based on body mass index or "BMI" (BMI is calculated based on height and weight). The Administration requires medical certification of licensed commercial drivers at least every two years. These occupational medicine exams present a unique opportunity for detecting OSA as part of determining a driver's safety behind the wheel.
"OSA screenings of truck drivers will be ineffective unless they are federally mandated or required by employers," said Dr. Kales. In the future, the FMCSA may consider the recommendation as part of a comprehensive medical rulemaking.
Click here for a Body Mass Index Calculator
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.