In line with Solar Solve’s new marketing campaign for the next 12 months, that will have crew fatigue as the main issue, I have been doing a bit of Internet research. I know fatigue can be fatal either by way of inherent things like heart attacks or as a result of an consequential accident. What I didn’t realise is that many of the world’s most significant man-made disasters have been associated with fatigue.
One website at https://www.hsl.gov.uk/workplace-fatigue-management states that ‘Workplace fatigue can lead to accidents, injury, ill-health and loss of productivity’ and goes on to say:
It has been cited as the root cause of many significant accidents including the Clapham Junction rail disaster, Chernobyl, the Texas City oil refinery explosion, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the loss of the Challenger space shuttle. Fatigue is also implicated in 20% of accidents on major roads.
I am surprised by the information in both sentences but for different reasons. I didn’t realise that most of the disasters in the first sentence considered fatigue to be a contributing factor, yet in the second sentence about road accidents I thought fatigue would have contributed to a lot more than 20% of them. Either way, a lot of work has still to be done to raise everyone’s awareness of the problem that fatigue is something we need to manage or preferably eliminate, in an ideal world.
There are many customer commendations on our website Testimonials page confirming that Solar Solve Ltd’s products are able to help the Global Marine Industry with crew fatigue management, here are just 2 of them:-
“I saw the SOLASOLV® screens on the Windstar and they are perfect for keeping the glare out, great vision out and adding some privacy.” RD
“Products and service were very good. We were looking for an anti-glare solution that would allow safer navigation up sun, we researched a few products and companies – Solar Solve were the best. Not the cheapest – the best.” MJ, MYA.
It’s not just the Marine Industry that we are able to help, The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has a page on its website mentioning the fact that fatigue management refers to the methods by which aviation service providers and operational personnel address the safety implications of fatigue, here: https://www.icao.int/safety/fatiguemanagement/Pages/default.aspx. As suppliers of sunscreens to Air traffic Control Towers, our products play a significant role in managing fatigue in such environments.
Confirmation that this is a huge issue of interest and concern to a vast number of organisations and individuals globally can be proved by typing ‘Fatigue Management’ into any Internet search engine. Lots of businesses and other kinds of organisation publish their Fatigue Management Policies there.
It’s not going to go away, we all have to deal with it.
