The human physiology underlying alertness, risk, and performance in the oil transportation industry

Abstract

Although human performance varies greatly between and even within individuals, it may nevertheless be generally predicted by a number of physiological and psychophysiological factors common to all humankind, regardless of the operational environment. These include the effects that circadian influences, disrupted sleep, sleep loss, and other factors, including caffeine, alcohol, and over-the-counter medications, have on performance, cognition, and response time and therefore the safety of any planned or emergency response operation. Given the environmental, litigious, and regulatory climate surrounding marine oil transportation and transfer operations, these factors must be incorporated into the operational environment by whatever means possible if maximal safety, awareness, and preparedness are to be assured. This may be accomplished at minimal cost, first, by training vessel and shore-side personnel in the underlying physiology and psychophysiology contributing to performance decrements and increased risk-taking behavior, and second, by enacting specific countermeasures that may be immediately implemented to mitigate the effects of fatigue and improve the quality of sleep achieved "off watch." Given the research efforts identifying the performance-related problems in the marine environment and the reported efficacy of the solutions that are implemented, to further ignore these issues is considered irresponsible at all levels of management and operational responsibility.