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Mobile Lab To Help Truckers With Sleep Apnea

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Jun 20, 2008 7:31 am US/Mountain

Mobile Lab To Help Truckers With Sleep Apnea

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ― A mobile sleep lab arrived in Boulder early Thursday morning to launch a program to treat and diagnose truck drivers who suffer from sleep apnea. The unit, built by the health care companies Covidien and Sleep Pointe, was designed to bring a treatment solution for truckers with the disorder who are constantly on the road.

Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. The disorder can lead to sleepiness and fatigue during the daytime.

Scott Drake, president of Covidien Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions, said the lab "is intended to bring a real solution to real truckers on the road to make our roads safer."

Covidien found that approximately 28 percent of commercial truck drivers suffer from sleep apnea and many fail to keep up with the necessary treatments. Covidien and Sleep Pointe believe that accessible treatment to the disorder can prevent some fatalities on the road.

"Every 16 minutes in America, somebody is killed or injured in a truck-related accident and we know that at the core of those accidents often is sleep deprivation or a trucker being fully asleep behind the wheel," he said.

These rolling sleep centers will soon be stationed at truck stops across the U.S. to encourage truckers to receive treatment for sleep apnea. The labs contain treatment facilities and private bedrooms for the truckers.

"A trucker is going to get involved in this by probably recognizing on their own… that they have a problem sleeping," he said.

According to the National Institutes of Health, about 12 million Americans have sleep apnea while an additional 10 million suffer from the disorder and remain undiagnosed.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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