Human Factors, Changes and Eating!

Recently, I have several articles on Food. I think maybe because I am on a Diet. I came across a blog that ties eating and Safety and I thought it was interesting. There are some actual practical ways Human Factors can affect Safety. The science of the size of people and their ‘fit’ with their environment (anthropometry) is key to our design of many ‘Systems’. It has long been a key part of ergonomics (human factors). However, it doesn’t often make the news. This week the UK media has been highlighting a recent concern from the offshore oil industry relating to an increase in weight of offshore workers. I believe this is important in several way. First for the reasons I list below but, also for the many Helicopter and Transport industries that support the Oil rigs. 

Average weight of Off Shore Oil Rig workers on the rise. 

It appears that the average weight of offshore workers in the UK sector has risen in the 25 years since the last systematic survey; and not by a trivial amount. In 1985 the average weight of a male worker was 76 kilo, and in 2010 it was 90 kilos.

This impacts many things that are critical to safety, effectiveness and wellbeing in the industry, including design of 

helicopter seating and number of passengers, lifeboat design, safety equipment such as survival suits, accommodation, shared areas, control rooms, equipment access, and the list is almost endless. From a human factors engineering (HFE) perspective, it reminds us that nothing stays the same and we need to be careful with our data tables. In Quality Assurance terms, “Metrics.” Metrics must be continually updated in order to assure the pertinence of the data to the system. 

Human Factors Metrics is important to maintain

This isn’t an abstract issue. Weight can have a very real consequence if we allow our data to become out of date. The fatal crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481 in 2003 was caused in part by passenger weight data that was over 65 years out of date. When the FAA in the US went back to first principles and measured the 21^st century reality, it came up with similar conclusions to the oil platform worker study; their data was out of date and wildly different from reality.

The obvious question to ask is why is this happening? The FAA work shows us that there has been a long term change since 1935 in the general population, but the North Sea data shows a similar change in only the last 25. I suspect that as well as a long term trend to more obesity and higher average weights, there are other factors at play here. Not least the change in demographic of the offshore workforce. Many people currently working in the industry are now in their 50s, having started in their 20s, with all the attendant changes to physiology that that involves. That could be a part of the picture.

The Fat content of foods has increased
some 40% in the last 20 years

I also wonder whether the increased standards of catering on offshore platforms might also be playing a part? We always tout that Continuous Improvement is necessary. However, we need to Risk Assess some of those improvements. Can an improvement to a process or procedure lead to another risk else where? Interesting concept.

Your thoughts....