Best Practices for Fatigue Risk Management

Preventing Fatigue in Construction

Maintain a regular sleep schedule and aim to get at least seven hours of sleep each night. During irregular shifts, set a four hour “anchor” time for sleep that doesn't change and supplement with naps. Make changes to your sleeping area or adjust your household routine if possible.

Fatigue, whether physical or mental, impairs a construction worker's ability to safely and effectively perform their job duties. ... Physically demanding and repetitive work, which is the norm in construction, is a big contributor to construction worker fatigue.

BEST PRACTICES FOR FATIGUE RISK MANAGEMENT

  1. Human fatigue is recognized as being one of the primary causes of accidents in industry today. The costs of fatigue are a major human and financial burden to companies, workers, and their families. Employers must ensure that everyone in their workplace is aware of potential workplace hazards (such as fatigue), and take steps to prevent workplace accidents, injuries and illnesses that may be a result of fatigue. This workshop will present some of the key issues related to employee fatigue and identify resources for managing fatigue. This workshop will answer the following questions: What is fatigue? What variables impact fatigue? What are the consequences of fatigue? How do you overcome fatigue?
     
  2. What is Fatigue?
    Fatigue is the dynamic balance between competing forces; forces producing fatigue and forces reversing the effects of fatigue (recovery). Fatigue is the feeling of extreme tiredness or exhaustion, often involving muscle weakness. There are a number of different definitions of fatigue, including:
    The consequence of inadequate restorative sleep.•Extreme tiredness after physical or mental exertion.•The increasing difficulty to perform physical or mental activities.
     
  3. What Variables Impact Fatigue?
    Stress
    Health
    Nutrition
    Exposure
    Sleep debt
    Hydration
    Mental activity
    Physical activity
    Biological factors
    Lifestyle choices
    Corporate culture
    Circadian rhythms
    Personal protective equipment
    Job requirements
     
  4.  What are the Consequences of Fatigue?
    Decreased alertness
    Slowed reaction time
    High error rate
    Failure to respond
    Poor communication
    Nodding off
    Below standard performance
    Reduced motivation
    Impaired judgment
    Poor decision making
    Reduced short-term memory
    Increased tendency for risk-taking Workplace fatigue has been recognized as a major cause of accidents, which can cause injuries, and loss of life.   
     
  5. Good Sleep Habits:
    Try to follow these good sleep habits so that you can get the best possible sleep:
    Get an adequate amount of sleep every night. Identify the amount of sleep you need to be fully alert all day long and get that amount every night.
    Get continuous sleep. For sleep to be rejuvenating, you should get your required amount of sleep in one continuous block.
    Stick to the same schedule. Try to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day.

After finishing a hard day at work, it is really important to wind down. Build in time during the evening to relax and recover. If there are things on your mind, set aside time before or after supper to worry about them. Don’t discuss or think about stressful things just before you go to sleep.

Develop a regular bedtime routine. Develop routines to practice before you go to sleep. Have a shower or hot bath and bring light reading material such as a favorite magazine.

  • Make up for lost sleep as soon as possible. To catch up, go to bed earlier.
  • Keep your bedroom dark and quiet. Sleep on a good bed.
  • A somewhat cool 19 to 20 degrees Celsius room also contributes to a better sleep.
  • Aerobic exercise increases deep sleep, but don’t do it close to bedtime.
  • Reduce caffeine intake for six hours before going to bed. Caffeine will prevent you from easily falling asleep.
  • Avoid alcohol near bedtime. Both NREM (deep, restorative) and REM (active dreaming) sleep will be suppressed, and you will experience early-morning awakening if you drink alcohol within two hours of bedtime.

May Near Misses

Third party safety observed two contractor employees jumping across the ditch line while I was discussing our lower-in plan with operations staff. The third-party safety representative used Stop Work Authority to discontinue the risky behavior, informed the inspector, and addressed the entire crew as to the reasons we never jump a ditch.

Observed contractor placing boxes on the ground and asked that they stop work and pick the trash up and place in trash bags.  Policy requires when trash is generated that it shall be contained and placed in trash container, dumpster, or trash bags and be secured to keep from blowing away.  Where these boxes were not contained, I informed the foreman that the trash needed to be placed in a trash bag when they were immediately through with the boxes.

While erecting a scaffold the crew was passing material up to the workers above. The employee on the second level was standing on 4’ wooden planks that were sitting flush on the scaffold runners. This posed a hazard if there was to be any shift in the wooden planks. Potentially resulting in a fall from an elevated platform. Typically, metal planks are utilized that grip the adjacent runners to prevent any type of shift/movement. And/or if utilizing wooden planks, they exceed the length of the adjacent runners to provide stability. This was immediately brought to the foreman's attention and corrected on the spot. The crew did not have the metal planks available therefore the 4’ wooden plank was utilized. A LMRA (Last Minute Risk Assessment) was performed by the crew to correct the issue.

Contractor crew was attempting to spread the forks on a forklift attachment which was mounted on a backhoe.  The operator tilted the forks down to make it easier for the crew to slide the forks further apart.  The slide bar was not properly lubricated, and the fork attachment was tilted too far down. The locking pins were also previously damaged - rendering them inoperable.  This was not noted in the equipment inspection checklist for the day. Crews started beating on the inside of the forks with a sledgehammer to move them further apart. The entire forklift attachment fell to the ground.  No property damage sustained, or personnel injury occurred, but someone could have been severely injured.
A hydrovac rig was potholing on a ROW.  The hydrovac rig got stuck in the mud.  A track hoe was brought in to assist.  A JSA was filled out (SIMOPS - Simultaneous Operations) identifying the task, hazards, and controls.  Proper rigging was used and the hydrovac truck was pulled out of the mud. All personnel were moved away from the area before the operation began. No injury, no incident, but there was a potential for property damage.

A 6" bore pipe was being pulled into the bore, the pipe fell off the rollers and onto the ground. No one was injured or close to the pipe when it came off the rollers.


CONGRATS!!! Curtis Parr has been selected as our Safety employee of the month. This is the first month for us doing this and we wanted to thank Curtis for always putting safety first and submitting his near miss reports along with completing his safety modules.

Interview Questions:

Why is Safety so important to you?
Curtis: I have seen incidents, I have been injured, and of some incidents I've seen, changed the lives of families forever, and yet life goes on.  So with life as in anything else we evolve into creatures of habit.  Those behaviors if guided correctly to constantly improve, reinforce, and provide by example, can and will save someone from going through a needless life changing event.  We all remember things we have done and looking back on how hazardous that was compared to now.  The workers are not getting younger, we need to remember we are getting older.  Once we were young and therefore performing the work.  We need to pass our 2 cents down to them and let them build on it, not start over.  I remember several years ago while I was on my tools, on occasions we needed someone to intervein because we were in a position where we couldn't Stop Work and get us a harness to tie off, a face shield, or remove us from the Line of Fire, or someone who had some family issues where they could not focus, Fit for Duty issues, and yes..., we were basically rolling the dice.  I am glad we can Stop Work and can evaluate and change to a safer work practice.  If I can keep an individual to where at the end of day allows him to go home, be with their family that depends upon on them and play ball with the kids, I feel that I accomplished one more day to come back and do it all over again.  Safety must have a Top-Down approach to get a buy in on those workers to allow it to be a Bottom-Up program, where the workers own the Safety, and it's theirs.

Why do you think submitting Near Miss reports is important?
Curtis: Near Misses are one way the good Lord has given us a way to learn.  A Near Miss allows us to recognize another opportunity to intervein and remind the contractor, Safety is #1, they are so focused on Production and Schedule.  These incidents where no injuries or no property damage has happened, either from complacency, a hazard that we never knew existed, or a hazard that was there that we missed an opportunity to identify, allows use a "Do Over" so we can intervein. Intervention is so important.  So many things we work with and contain to mitigate the risk, and being human mistakes are made.  We can all look back and see the advances in Safety and a lot is learned from Near Misses.  These are critical to advance Safety.


We are pleased to announce that we have partnered up with Boot Barn to offer all Applied Consultants inspectors a 15% discount on all purchases “work related” from the Boot Barn, Nation Wide. Be sure to tell them you work for Applied Consultants and use the key word: “Safety First” to receive the discount. 


May Winners

Platinum- Brian Cannon
Gold- Jesse Maldonado Jr
Silver- Marcus Payne
Bronze-Curtis Parr
Bronze-Craig Rawle

If you have been selected as newsletter Q&A winner, please click this link and select your prize(s) from your winning category.

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