Mitigating Workplace Cardiovascular Risks

Personal habits and behaviors have a significant impact on individual susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, but exposure to certain social, organizational, and environmental conditions at work can also play a part. 

Work is linked to about 10 to 20% of all cardiovascular disease deaths for working-age individuals. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions said there are 10 work-related factors that cause 120,000 deaths in the U.S. annually:

• Long working hours (55 hours or more per week)
• Working nights, rotating shifts, or other non-standard shifts 
• High job demand
• Low job control
• Low job security (worried about losing one’s job)
• Work-family imbalance
• Low organizational justice (feeling of being treated unfairly at work)
• Low workplace social support
• Unemployment
• No health insurance

Additionally, occupations like plant and machine operators and assemblers and long-haul drivers are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Workplace Prevention

There are a number of workplace programs and activities the CDC suggests businesses implement to reduce these risks. 

That includes building short physical activity breaks into the workday, offering health education programs for employees, and offering workplace health screenings and referrals. 

Regardless of a company’s best preventive measures, workplace cardiac arrest incidents occur.

In an effort to address these potentially fatal episodes, more companies are including automated external defibrillators with their safety kits.

AEDs 

OSHA’s First Aid Standard does not require AEDs to be included in a company’s first aid kit, but as the American Heart Association says, AEDs save lives. 

“They are an important part of responding to a cardiac arrest,” a recent American Heart Association publication noted. 

“A person’s chance of surviving drops by 7 to 10% every minute a normal heartbeat isn’t restored. So, immediate CPR and AED use can double or triple the person’s chance of survival.”

“A person’s chance of surviving drops by seven to 10% every minute a normal heartbeat isn’t restored.”

American Heart Association

An AED is a small portable device that delivers an electric shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm. 

Employers are encouraged to provide designated individuals with instructions on effectively using an AEDs from time to time. 

Even previously trained employees may need refresher training after three to six months.

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In partnership with the American Heart Association and Proactive Safety, CBIA is hosting a Responding to Workplace Cardiac Incidents training program at Gerber Technology June 4. The training is free for CBIA members.