Employee/Employer Interactions and Responsibilitie

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Publish Date: 2001

Volume: 05, Issue: 03, Pages: 153-162

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Abstract

Although genetic diseases are not communicable in the ordinary sense the genetic profile of some individuals can influence them to act in ways that can cause direct harm to third parties Significant scholarly work is beginning to address ethical legal and social issues raised by a persons genetic susceptibility to engage in sociopathic and other forms of intentional or criminal behavior1 Another major type of direct harm to third parties that may be causally related to an individuals genetic endowment 6is the harm caused by accidents In the language of the law the former work deals with crimes and intentional torts while this project relates to accidental negligent or reckless tortsEach year approximately 94000 Americans die and 19 million are injured as the result of accidental injuries which include personal injuries in the workplace motor vehicle crashes and disasters in the transportation industry2 The economic costs are estimated at 480 billion per year noneconomic costs exceed one trillion dollars3No estimate has been made of the proportion of these accidents that are the result at least in part of genetic factors However several genetic factors are known or suspected For example it is well known that genetic factors predispose certain individuals to develop disorders whose symptoms include accidentprone behaviors These include Alzheimers disease4 alcoholism5 epilepsy6 vision impairments7 and the movement disorders associated with Huntingtons disease8 In addition studies currently are underway at the National Institutes of Health on the relationship between noveltyseeking impulsivity and criminal behavior Similar inclinations toward risktaking could incline individuals toward behaviors that cause accidents It can also be expected that further genetic correlates with accidentcausing behavior will be discovered in the futureOne physiologic cause of accidents that is receiving considerable attention in the policy arena is sleep disorders Sleepiness is a causative factor in as many as 3 of all US motor vehicle accidents9 Accident victims receiving emergency room care are more likely to have sleep apnea than a control population odds ratio = 6310 Many sleep disorders are known or believed to be inherited Genes for the human disease ``narcolepsy a neurologic disorder of excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy known to cluster in families and in persons with specific inheritance of immune markers are very likely to be discovered in the near future Work is underway to locate genes responsible for other sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome dissociated REM sleep restless legs syndrome and parasomnia all of which show patterns of inheritance11 Genetic testing for sleep disorders may be particularly important because unlike with alcohol or druginduced accidents there are no current physiologic measures for sleepiness in the immediacy of accidents such as automobile crashes12 Instead sleepiness is identified based on questionnaires and electrophysiological measures which are not conducive to the immediate prevention of accidents nor to the detection of those at risk Systems are under development to measure sleepiness in occupations such as commercial and noncommercial driving where the costs of a fallasleep accident are high13 These include brainwave monitors and devices that identify steering deviation and line drift This technology is not yet proven however and may be costly

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