Firefighter fatigue: study examines correlation of fatigue and safety.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay

A new study underway by the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) is looking at how fatigue plays a role in the health and safety of forest firefighters, which could have implications for other workplaces.

The study, which is being funded by the Ministry of Natural Resources, is being led by senior CROSH researchers Dr. Sandra Dorman and Dr. Celine Lariviere, and associate professors in the School of Human Kinetics at Laurentian University. It's been broken into two parts: one looks at the physiological and nutritional factors, while the other examines the psychological aspects impacting fatigue. Together, these elements are revealing some interesting facts about fatigue.

"We believe that fatigue causes injury" said Dr. Sandra Dorman, the health and safety liaison at CROSH, and an associate professor in Laurentian University's School of Human Kinetics.

"This is why it's difficult to suss out fatigue: you could be physically fatigued because you've been working a very strenuous job, but you could also be mentally fatigued," she added. "Maybe it wasn't physically strenuous for 12 hours, but you've been doing it for so long you're mentally fatigued."

The goal is to find various levels of fatigue amongst workers and formulate a long-range plan for how to mitigate it.

Ayden Robertson, a graduate student with CROSH who's focusing on the first part of the study, said that some research has compared the energy output of a forest firefighter to that of military personnel because of the labour-intense work and the heavy, 60-pound packs of equipment they carry.

"If you consider energy balance, forest fire operations have similar energy expenditure to military operations in terms of training," said Robertson, a registered kinesiologist. "The result is a negative energy balance over a long period of time."

His colleague, Zach McGillis, also a graduate student with CROSH, monitors study subjects for the psychological factors relating to fatigue, such as how long they sleep at night and how many times they wake up, compared with how tired they say they feel after resting. There can sometimes be a disconnect between the two.

"Typically people need to sleep more than five or six hours a night," McGillis said. "But over a week or longer of five hours of sleep per night, a person can almost feel intoxicated. If your job requires you to have quick reaction time and sound problem-solving skills, this can pose a problem."

A forest...