Effects of low-dose alcohol exposure on simulated merchant ship piloting by maritime cadets

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulates on-the-job alcohol use by operators of certain categories of commercial transport. For aircraft, t rains, and commercial vessels, operators are subject to sanctions for havin g greater than or equal to0.04 g% blood alcohol concentration (BAC). This s tudy examines the effects of alcohol (between 0.04 and 0.05 g% BAG) on simu lated merchant ship handling. A two-group randomized factorial design was u sed to compare beverage alcohol to placebo while controlling for baseline p erformance on a previous day. The study was conducted in the Maritime Simul ation Center at Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, ME. Participants were 38 v olunteer deck officer cadets in their junior or senior year, at least 21 ye ars of age, with previous experience on a bridge simulator. Following a bas eline trial on Day 1, on Day 2 participants were randomized to receive alco hol (0.6 g/kg for males and 0.5 g/kg for females) or placebo. After allowin g time for absorption, participants completed a bridge simulator task. For baseline and performance trials, participants were randomized to one of fou r bridge simulator scenarios, each representing passage of a fully loaded c ontainer vessel through a channel with commercial traffic. The aggregate sc enario score given by blinded maritime educators measured performance. A ma in effect for alcohol was found indicating that performance was significant ly impaired by this low dose of alcohol relative to performance in the plac ebo condition. These findings are consistent with current federal regulatio ns that limit low-dose alcohol exposure for the operators of commercial tra nsport vehicles. Further research is required to determine effects at lower BACs. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.