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It's well known that truck drivers' health can be at risk from poor diet and a lack of exercise, but there are a number of hidden hazards that can be just as fatal
Draw a line down the middle of William McElligott's face and you'll wonder whether you're looking at someone in their 80s or late middle age. The left-hand side of the 66-year-old former US truck driver's face is pitted and sagging after 28 years of exposure through the side window of his lorry, while the right-hand side, shaded by the cab as McElligott delivered milk around Chicago, is taut and unblemished.
McElligott became a case study for photoageing after his picture was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That too much sun is bad for skin and health generally is hardly new, but what was striking about McElligott's story is that because the damage occurred gradually over his career he was unaware of it until the latter years. It highlights the fact that not all the health dangers commercial vehicle drivers encounter daily will be immediately obvious or visible.
The McElligott example hit the headlines at around the same time as another story that highlighted the hidden health risks for drivers: the outbreak of legionnaires' disease in Edinburgh. Although small in number - 359 cases in 2010 according to the latest finalised figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) - the potency of the legionella virus makes it particularly dangerous, with around 10% of infections causing death.
Recent HPA research found that professional drivers are five times more likely to be infected with it than the rest of the population. Most at risk "were those who drove or travelled in a van, who drove through industrial areas, and who spent a lot of time in the car or often had the car window open". These factors, combined with the fact that men account for two-thirds of cases, the majority aged over 50, puts commercial vehicle...