HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2014
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Healthier and More Sustainable Catering: A Toolkit for Serving Food to Adults
is available to download at
2.2 Deaths from Medical Causes Among Offshore Workers
Although the industry gathers figures on deaths and serious injury due to accidents, figures for deaths or serious
events due to medical causes are difficult to obtain. With the co-operation of the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) and Grampian Police (now Police Scotland), Oil & Gas UK gathered available data for the northern
sector of the UK North Sea and figures are available for 2011 and 2012. In these two years, a total of nine
deaths due to medical causes are known to have occurred in offshore workers in the northern sector while on
offshore installations. Of these, eight were due to cardiovascular disease and one due to suicide. The deaths from
cardiovascular disease all occurred in persons over 40 (the youngest being 43), and five of the eight deaths were in
persons over 50. In only two instances were the workers thought confidently to be non-smokers.
These figures may underestimate the actual number of deaths which occurred, but they suggest that a major
cause of medical mortality among offshore workers may be cardiovascular disease (meaning heart attack) and
that smoking may be implicated in such deaths. There is a need to gather better and more robust figures on
offshore medical mortality in future to understand and address the risk factors involved.
2.3 Serious Medical Events Among Offshore Workers
Serious medical events among offshore workers will inevitably result in the worker being ‘medevaced’ to medical
care ashore. Two medical provider companies offer most of the medical cover for the UK sector. No precise figures
are currently available on the number and causes of medevac of offshore personnel, but it is known that two
studies are either under way or in the planning stage, with the aim of providing this information. Accounts from
doctors providing ‘topside’ medical services to industry suggest that a major cause of serious medical illness
leading to medevac of offshore personnel is cardiovascular disease and, increasingly, strokes.
Understanding the pattern of serious medical illness occurring in offshore workers is essential to planning medical
care for the workforce, and it is expected that future editions of this report will include an annual summary from
‘topside’ service medical providers regarding the number and causes of serious medical occurrences offshore.
2.4 Smoking and E-Cigarettes
Safety-related constraints stipulate that smoking is only permitted within designated safe locations on offshore
installations. Recent government figures indicate that the proportion of smokers in the general population
continues to fall over time, whilst nicotine use in the form of ‘e-cigarettes’ is increasing. Employers across the
industry have requested advice from Oil & Gas UK, which is expected to lead to guidance being produced on
managing nicotine use on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
2.5 Nutrition and Food Quality
The quantity and quality of food consumed clearly has an influence on the development of obesity, and the
Department of Health has published guidance for employers and caterers on the nutritional standards of food
provided in workplaces
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. It is uncommon for explicit provisions on the nutritional quality of food to be included in
catering contract arrangements, but it is expected that concerns regarding the shape and size of offshore workers,
which has changed significantly in the last three decades, will change this situation in the future.
