Changes in physical performance among construction workers during extended workweeks with 12-hour workdays

Injuries associated with long working hours among employees in the US mining industry: risk factors and adverse outcomes

Objectives

The mining industry is increasingly adopting extended workdays of 10–12 hour shifts. Studies demonstrate that long work hours are associated with psychomotor impairments caused by fatigue and an increased risk of injury. However, studies involving miners remain limited. This analysis aimed to identify risk factors associated with long working hour injuries and to determine if long working hour incidents were associated with being killed or incidents involving multiple injured workers.

Methods

Data from US Mine Safety and Health Administration Part 50 reports, 1983–2015, were used to identify long working hour injuries, which were defined as incidents occurring nine or more hours after the start of a shift.

Results

A total of 52 206 injuries (9.6%) occurred during long working hours. The proportion of long working hour injuries increased from 5.5% of all injuries in 1983 to its peak in 2015 at 13.9% (p<0.001). Risk factors associated with long working hour injuries included irregular shift starts, being newly employed, employment by a contractor, metal/non-metal operations and mines with <100 employees. In two separate adjusted models, long working hour injuries were associated with a higher odds of death (adjusted OR [aOR]=1.32; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.48) and single incidents resulting in two or more workers injured (aOR=1.73; 95% CI 1.58 to 1.89).

Conclusions

Long working hour injuries were associated with a lack of routine, being new at the mine and specific mining activities. An international shift towards using contract labour and extended workdays indicates that injuries during long working hours will likely continue to grow as a problem in the mining industry.

Still healthy after extended work hours? Ten hours shift, twenty-one days working period for tunnel workers

The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported health effects of extended work hours (10 h on/14 h off) for 21 d at work/21 d off, for 40 male tunnel workers in an Arctic area. A questionnaire obtaining information about demographics and subjective health complaints (SHC), including musculoskeletal, pseudoneurological, gastrointestinal, allergic, and flu-like complaints the last thirty days was distributed on day 14 of a work period. In addition questions on coping, psychological job demands, control, and social support were asked. The questionnaire was repeated three times during a nine months observation period. Twenty-six workers completed all three questionnaires. The prevalence of subjective health complaints did not change during the observation period. The prevalence of subjective health complaints was the same or lower than in a control group. There was a slight increase in self-reported job demands during the observation period. Coping, job control, and social support from colleagues and management were reported high and did not change. No association between this type of long work hours and changes in self-reported health was found in this study. However, this might have been a selected group of workers, and the same results may not be found in another population.