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Re: Apnea Testing of Professional Truck Drivers

Posted by sleepyrick on April 04, 1998 at 10:44:20:

In Reply to: Apnea Testing of Professional Truck Drivers posted by Mark Higley on April 02, 1998 at 12:36:53:

A few years ago I studied extensively the trucking regulations, working with the chief safety officer and vice president of a large long haul trucking firm. My info is a couple years old.. but in the US as of 1995:
1. screening for sleep apnea is not required, but
2. if a company has reasonable suspicion that a driver has ANY condition that may impair the ability to safely operate the vehicle, THEY ARE REQUIRED TO GET THAT DRIVER TESTED AND TREATED before allowing them to continue driving.
"reasonable suspicion" for sleep apnea: an official at the US national highway transportation safety office told me that reasonable suspicion would be "known snoring and being obese".

In another spot, the regulations read: if a driver is diagnosed with sleep apnea, the term of the medical certification shall be shortened to one year, and the driver will be required to annually prove continued successful treatment of the apnea by an annual MSLT test(a sleep test which documents how long it takes to fall asleep in daytime hours).

Research certainly is being done on this topic. One VERY involved place is Stanford University. Try to contact Bill Dement's lab.

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