Bright lights and saliva to save thousands of lives

A combination of lighting and saliva tests could be key to saving thousands of Australian lives on the job. The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Alertness, Safety and Productivity is working to develop new devices and systems to protect workers and drivers from fatigue.

“With our 24-hour society, more Australians are working shifts or getting less shut-eye, and suffering serious sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnoea. The impact on alertness has a worrying knock-on effect for workplace productivity and injury statistics,” said Anthony Williams, CRC chief executive.

Research will also focus on developing dynamic lighting systems that can reset the body clock and directly activate the brain to improve alertness and performance. These smart lights could be personalised for individuals or used office wide to predict when a person’s alertness is starting to wane.

“Through the discovery of new biomarkers of alertness, we will be able to create new devices that test a worker’s sweat or saliva for these signals, before operating machinery or getting behind a wheel. An accurate, real-time alertness test such as this could be life saving,” said Monash University’s Professor Shantha Rajaratnam, who is the Research Program Leader.

The CRC brings together 26 diverse organisations, including large multinationals, small Australian technology companies, universities, regulators, insurers, policy agencies and employers.