In an effort to ensure road safety among American motorists and commuters, the FMCSA will soon act on medical findings regarding a sleep disorder.

According to USA Today, the medical review board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will finalize recommendations about truckers and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on April 7, says Maggi Gunnels, the agency’s director of medical programs.

Sufferers of sleep apnea wake up frequently during sleep because the disorder causes their airways to partially close. The constant awakening, once every minute or two in severe cases, makes them unusually drowsy during their waking periods, which could be especially risky for truck drivers.

Allan Pack, director of the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and adviser to the medical review board says the condition is also a major contributor to obesity, USA Today reported.

Because of this, the board is expected to recommend that commercial truck drivers be required to undergo a sleep study once they reach a certain level of obesity. If the agency approves, drivers would have to be treated for the condition to get certified.

Treatment can include surgery or the use of a mask during sleep that delivers air into the airway.

Gunnels and Pack say review board members were split over what level of obesity should trigger the sleep study requirement, USA Today said.

David Rapoport, medical director of the New York University School of Medicine Sleep Disorders Center says clinical studies have shown that commercial truck drivers have a higher incidence of the most severe form of OSA - 20%-30%, compared with 2% of women over age 40 and 4% of men over 40.

Pack says multiple studies have shown that automobile drivers who have sleep apnea have a 2 1/2 times greater risk of being in a crash, and the crashes you get into tend to be fairly severe. He also adds that no studies have been done on the crash risk of commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea, USA Today said.

Gunnels says federal regulators already can ground drivers they believe are susceptible to drowsiness; the changes, if implemented, would give them more authority.

The federal agency’s guidelines on truckers and sleep apnea need an update based on improved science and the medical community’s better understanding of the condition, says

Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety, security and operations at the American Trucking Associations, told USA Today that the federal agency’s guidelines on truckers and sleep apnea need an update based on improved science and the medical community’s better understanding of the condition.

“Individually, trucking companies are becoming more aware of this issue and are screening truck drivers, but there’s also a role the federal government can and should play,” he said.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents small-business and independent truckers, says they would oppose testing drivers for sleep apnea based solely on their weight unless a “direct causal relationship” with obesity can be shown, the article said.