Fatigue due to on board work conditions in merchant vessels

Abstract

Several publications point to the human error like the fundamental cause of the practical whole of the accidents. Inside these accidents, the fatigue has been identified like a recurrent cause, already was as first cause or like an important factor that produces the human error. Investigations carried out during the course of these years have shown that the chronic fatigue problems, the problems related to the stress and other problems of the health are associated with the conditions of work on board. On board, the fatigue related to the work depends directly on the characteristics on the work environment that the worker is exposed and, specifically, to the type of demands imposed by the task. With the aim to define in an objective way the levels of fatigue associated with the tasks and related aspects of the engineering department crew on board merchant vessels, a survey on workers of this department was conducted. The results showed a high level of complexity in the work performed due to the tremendous physical and mental needs required to perform the typical tasks on board these vessels.