Overtime linked to on-the-job injuries

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Working more than a 40-hour week may boost the chances of suffering an on-the-job injury, according to a study of manufacturing workers.

Researchers found that among workers at five U.S. metal production plants, those who worked 65 hours or more in a given week were 88 percent more likely to suffer an injury than their co-workers who logged 40 hours.

The study could not reveal the reasons for the link, but fatigue is a likely culprit, Dr. Mark R. Cullen, the study's senior author, told Reuters Health.

He and his colleagues at the Yale University School of Medicine report the findings in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

The study is based on injury and work-hour data kept by five metal production plants in different U.S. states. Cullen's team found that for a given shift, employees who'd worked more than 64 hours in the previous week faced a higher injury risk than those who'd worked a standard 40-hour week.

Among the most common injuries were muscle strains, sprained joints, bruises and burns.

The findings, according to the study authors, suggest that limiting overtime hours might also limit on-the-job injuries.

Other fields, like the trucking industry and the medical profession, have grappled with the risks of long work hours, Cullen pointed out. Truck drivers have long been subject to rest rules, and in recent years, new limits have been placed on the number of hours doctors-in-training can put it in at the hospital each week.

Limiting overtime in the manufacturing industry may not be a popular move, given that employers like the extra productivity and many workers want the extra pay. But, Cullen said, there may be no other good alternative for reducing the injury risk related to long work hours.

SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, August 2007.