Up Front

A matter of life and death

More than 2,000 drivers checked their blood pressure at our booth during the recent Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville. Through our sponsorship of the Healthy Trucking program (healthytruckinginfo.com), we arranged to have four blood pressure kiosks on site at the show, along with Dr. John McElligott, the founder of the Professional Drivers Medical Depot (www.pd-md.com), who answered drivers’ health questions.

We were joined at the booth by several employees of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, which recently introduced a free program called BP DownShift™ (drivershealth.com) geared toward helping drivers lower their blood pressure and lead healthier lives. In addition, with this issue of Over the Road, we’ll begin running a new series of columns in “Consider This” (see page 34) that will focus on health-related issues.

Why all the fuss about drivers’ health? Because drivers, when viewed as a group, are in poor health, and we’re determined to do whatever we can to improve the situation. According to Dr. McElligott, 90 percent of OTR drivers have or are taking medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels or some combination of the three. Dr. McElligott sent at least 20 of the drivers he saw at MATS to the emergency room, and one of them suffered a heart attack en route.

Need we say more? Can any issue be more important to you than your health?