Dot And Sleep Apnea
However dot does require a medical examination for truck drivers to receive and maintain a cdl license as well as obtain dot medical cards. Untreated sleep apnea can make it difficult for you to stay awake focus your eyes and react quickly while driving.
The fmcsa requires that you provide documentation that you have or do not have sleep apnea.
Dot and sleep apnea. Sleep apnea causes pauses in breathing during sleep and robs its sufferers of the good quality sleep needed to be fully alert during the rest of the day. Obstructive sleep apnea osa is a sleep related breathing disorder that keeps the affected person from breathing appropriately during sleep. Sleep apnea is a serious potentially life threatening condition.
Medical examiners carrier employers and drivers hoped that a new law would give the industry more direction as there s confusion on exactly what is and isn t allowed when it comes to drivers with sleep apnea. A sleep apnea rule would give clarity to medical examiners carrier employers and drivers themselves about what criteria or combination of criteria would prompt a driver to be referred for an in. In general studies show that people with untreated sleep apnea have an increased risk of being involved in a fatigue related motor vehicle crash.
Regulatory laws can be confusing so we discuss whether or not sleep apnea testing is part of the dot physical needed to get commercial driver s license cdl. Because of this oxygen levels are lowered and the brain has to wake up the body intermittently to get it to start breathing again. Truck drivers are concerned that a sleep apnea diagnosis will prevent them from doing their job based on a new law by the department of transportation dot.
Some dot physicians with no written fmcsa guidlines or rules are on their own with no sleep apnea training what so ever themselves are acting as middle men by sending drivers to sleep apnea testing to satisy other doctors who are stake share holders in the sleep the apnea association which is suddenly making obscene amounts of by doing the tests some are more than likely. Facts about sleep apnea overview. Does dot or fmcsa require sleep apnea testing.
Sleep apnea often goes unrecognized and untreated. Dot sleep apnea guidelines your neck circumference of inches hypertension history yes no and body mass index bmi of place you at risk for sleep apnea. Many sleep apnea patients say they never fall asleep while driving.
That may be true. Please review the below choices for obtaining that documentation. Last year dot planned to pass a new law on dot physical sleep apnea that would require sleep apnea testing for drivers.
There are currently no laws requiring a department of transportation dot physical for sleep apnea.
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