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Abstract
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Worldwide, there are an estimated 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries with >4 days of absences from work (1) and more than 3000 fatal work injuries in European countries each year (2). The human cost of this is vast, and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated to be about 4% of global gross domestic product (GDP) each year (1). There is a need to identify risk factors of work-related injuries as such knowledge may help decrease the number of injuries.
A promising candidate for such a risk factor is extended working hours, which leave less time outside work and thereby less time for sleep and restitution. The resulting sleepiness can in turn cause poorer cognitive performance and thus constitutes a plausible mechanism linking long working hours to accidents. Being awake for 18 hours has been shown to impair performance corresponding to a blood alcohol content of 0.05% (3), and long daily working hours (12-hour shifts) have been associated with impairment of alertness and performance (4). This line of effects may link extended working hours to acute safety risks as well as possibly long-term health effects. In addition, reduced performance not only puts the person who works the long hours at risk, it could also have implications for the safety and health of others. Extended working hours could, for example, affect patient and traffic safety (5). In a study of nurses working 12-hour night shifts, almost all reported having at least one motor vehicle accident or near accident during the previous 12 months driving to or from work (6).
Undoubtedly, there is an upper limit to how long it is possible to work as this is limited by the number of hours in the day and the need for recovery, and working hours has for long been a focus of regulation. Indeed regulation of working hours was part of the 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, which was the very first piece of factory legislation in the United Kingdom. It prevented apprentices in cotton mills from working at night and for >12 hours a day (7). Today, the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) regulates the duration of working hours in Europe...
Language: en |