Study on Alcohol Consumption and Offshore Oil Rig Workers, 1981

This report summarizes a 1981 study on alcohol consumption among offshore oil rig workers in the North Sea. The study, conducted via self-reported questionnaires, found a high prevalence of heavy drinking among the workers during their leave periods, despite alcohol being prohibited on the rigs. The research investigated the drinking habits of these workers, comparing their consumption to recommended safe limits and exploring potential health and safety implications. The report discusses the methods used, the demographics of the participants, and the findings related to alcohol consumption levels. It also addresses the intermittent nature of their drinking, the potential risks associated with heavy drinking, and the need for further investigation into the subculture of offshore workers. The study emphasizes the need for interventions to inform workers about safe alcohol consumption and the potential for the industry to address the issue.

The writer is biased towards the oil rig workers and tries to devise strategies
that are specific to the oil rig workers.
Alcohol Consumption in Offshore Oil Rig Workers
Summary
The opportunity was taken in March 1981, to obtain self-reports from a sample of men working
in the North Sea Oil Industry, of the amount of alcohol consumed during the week preceding
their period offshore. It was very heavy; approximately 30per cent of 213 men had drunk
amounts above the safe limits suggested by the Royal College of Psychiatrists [/]. The findings
are compared with data obtained by similar methods in other groups of men by other
investigators, and the results discussed.
Introduction
Thesis
It has long been recognised that an association exists between certain types of employment and
heavy alcohol consumption, and this has been the subject of a recent Scottish Study
The consumption of alcohol in U.K. has increased steadily in the last 20 years and there has been
widespread concern over the medical and social consequences. The prevalence of alcohol related
social problems is particularly high in Scotland compared lo the rest of the U.K. 12]. It has long
been recognised that an association exists between certain types of employment and heavy
alcohol consumption, and this has been the subject of a recent Scottish Study 13] (Thesis).
Prominent amongst these occupations is the distilling industry in which Scotland has long
occupied a special place in the world. In the last decade, however, Scotland has also become

prominent as the U.K. base for the North Sea Oil operations, focused on Aberdeen. This has
brought an influx of people involved in the oil industry to the area, and many of these work
offshore. Offshore work is well remunerated. The workforce is all male. The usual cycle is a
two-week period working a 12-hour shift, followed by a two-week period of leave onshore. 1. A
high alcohol consumption is regarded as a normal way of life for many of these workers during
their leave period. By contrast, the consumption of alcohol is totally prohibited on all but a few
British offshore installations, and this was the case with all those concerned in the present study.
Rules are strictly enforced, and illicit alcohol consumption is virtually unknown. Offshore
workers are drawn from all over the country, indeed from all over the world, but the majority
live in the Grampian Area of Scotland with a significant number from Strathclyde and Tyneside.
All converge on Aberdeen to travel to their rigs by air. Work on oil rigs is demanding and can be
dangerous. 2. Those employed could be at risk if their physical or mental capacities were
marginally impaired, as they might be for a time following a fortnight's heavy drinking. 3. The
impression exists that accidents occur more frequently at the beginning and end of 2-week work
cycles, and Wilson [4] has reported progressively more time taken ofTwork through accidents,
with increasing alcohol consumption. No study of the medical problems of this group of
specialised workers has been Reprints requests should be sent to Dr. C. McCance 306 Aiken and
McCance undertaken, especially one concerned with their alcohol consumption and its
implications. As a first step, therefore, this study attempts to quantify what offshore workers
drink. Method
Travel to an oil rig with flights frequently delayed by hostile weather, with security checks, berth
allocations and other formalities can be tedious. ! Waiting is an integral part of the process.
These circumstances, however, presented the authors with a captive population who were, in the

main, happy to pass the time by taking part in the present enquiry. ? On three successive days in
March 1980, chosen to avoid special festive seasons, all those arriving on a base accommodation
platform and on three associated production rigs in the East Shetland basin of the North Sea,
were given a questionnaire to complete, which was accompanied by a short introductory letter.
Although most were newly arrived, some had already been offshore for several days and were in
transit. Anonymity was assured as the questionnaires bore no name or number. E. The
questionnaire was personally introduced and its completion supervised in the transit lounge by
one of the authors (G.A.) on the accommodation platform, and by the Medical Orderlies on the
production rigs, thus ensuring that there was no comparing of notes or frivolity in answering the
questions. They were collected immediately on completion. The questionnaire required each
respondent to remember and record every drink - its name and size in traditional measures -
taken day by day for the week prior to offshore departure. E. The aim of the questionnaire was
explicitly to learn about the drinking habits of offshore workers. A pilot study had established
that good co-of)eration could be expected, but that the questionnaire had to be brief and simple.
It covered one side of paper and took about ten minutes to complete. The questionnaires were
scored by reducing each drink to standard units of alcohol and adding up the week's total. This
method of measurement has been used in a number of surveys [4-6]. One unit is approximately
nine grammes of absolute alcohol and is contained in half a pint of ordinary beer, a small whisky
or 'nip' (one fluid ounce of 70% proof spirit), a glass of sherry (2 fluid ounces) or a glass of table
wine (4 fluid ounces).
Question: Did the Questionnaire method really help?
Results
Response

On the accommodation platform 136 forms were presented and 116 were adequately completed
(85 %). On the production rigs 130 forms were presented, 97 adequately completed (75%).
Those domiciled outside U.K. were not included in the study. General findings The respondents
ranged in age between 18 and 56, with a mean of 33.4 and a standard deviation of 7.8.
Comparing the men on the accommodation platform with those on the production platforms
there was no significant difference in age, marital Alcohol Consumption in Offshore Oil Rig
Workers 307 status, or whether they were classified as manual or executive workers. Manual
workers included riggers, roustabouts, scafTolders, and deck attendants. Executive workers
included platform managers, engineers, technicians and surveyors. ! Neither was there any
significant difference in the proportions of smokers to non-smokers on the two types of rig. ?
Alcohol consumption
E. The respondents were divided into three groups for their week's consumption; nil, up to 56
units, and over 56 units. Fifty-six units per week corresponds to the upper limit of safe drinking
suggested by the Royal College of Psychiatrists [1]. There was no difference (by Chi-square test)
in the quantities of alcohol consumed by the drinkers questioned on the two types of rig but the
accommodation platform had significantly more non-drinkers than the production platforms
Discussion
The method of obtaining a retrospective inventory of all alcoholic drinks taken on each of seven
preceding days is well established [4-6j. Most previous enquiries, however, have used much
longer and wider ranging questionnaires than was feasible in the present study, and employed
trained interviewers to obtain the information from each respondent individually. The
circumstances of the present study required that information be obtained from groups of people

in a short space of time, so that a self-administered format was adopted. This might well be a
useful method in other industrial enquiries or as an aid to the busy clinician [8]. The validity of
ail types of survey data on alcohol consumption is in doubt [4, 9, 10]. Concerning the relative
validity of self-administered questionnaires as opposed to those given by trained interviewers,
Robinson et al. [11] suggested that self-administration may obtain lower estimates of
consumption. The week reported by the present sample is, at best, representative of only the
weeks spent onshore. An equal number of weeks are spent in enforced abstinence. This
intermittent drinking style raises many questions. Does it protect people from developing
complications of heavy drinking? Continuous drinking is believed to be more damaging to the
liver than drinking in bouts! How protective is a fortnight's respite, particularly when associated
with the very high standards of nutrition which are the rule offshore? E. From the total offshore
workforce of approximately 2,000 from which this sample was taken, there were only eight
medical evacuations in a year which were certain, or likely to be due to alcohol abuse - two cases
of alcoholic hallucinosis, one of delirium tremens, three grand mal fits, one case of pancreatitis,
and one of hepatomegaly. Would the workers drink more, or less during their week prior to
embarkation if a modicum of drink were available on the rig, and more or less altogether in the
four-week cycle? E. There must also be a risk that this episodic heavy drinking style will
establish a habit which could gradually become continuous on the resumption ofa more normal
working routine, where drink would be available all the time. Of immediate concern is that many
workers must be arriving offshore in a post-alcoholic state unsuited to the demands and dangers
of the job! It would be simple for the industry to instigate a programme to inform its workforce
of the amounts of alcohol considered reasonably safe to drink as a normal social practice and
prior to embarkation; perhaps it has a duty to do so. It is unlikely, however, that those at most

risk would pay the slightest attention. It might even be possible for companies to insist that
employees embarked with a negative blood alcohol, but people who had been drinking very
heavily for most of their shore leave would still be impaired by withdrawal effects for several
days? E. Though such relatively small measures may be better than none, they are only token
responses, which ignore the personal and social reality: many of these men are drawn from a
background where heavy drinking is the norm, arc being introduced into a shift system which
completely disrupts normal social life, are being paid very high wages immediately prior to
having a fortnight of idleness in which to spend them - all circumstances which must exacerbate
drinking. To what extent it is expedient, morally obligatory, or economically possible for any
industry, or society as a whole, to order the lives of people to promote their greater health and
safety, is an issue of great complexity and one upon which a wide range of opinion will always
exist. Whatever the proper blend of corporate and individual responsibility may be, it is highly
relevant to discover more about the subculture of the offshore worker. This investigation has
merely glanced at the surface of these men's lives ashore. E. What is needed is a far deeper
study, extended, where appropriate, to their families, before the full impact of'the oil boom' can
be comprehended.
Question: Can the workers be really taught about the ill-effects of alcohol.
Acknowledgements
We are greatly indebted to David Hunter and Norma Robertson of the Aberdeen University
Mental Health Research Unit for help with data analysis. 310 Aiken and McCance
References

The Report of a Special Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. (1979). Alcohol and
Alcoholism, Tavistock Publication: London. 2 Vaughan, M. and Vass, J. {\98\). Sunday
Standard, 19July, 1.5-16. 3 Plant, M. A. (1979). Occupations, Drinking Patterns and Alcohol-
Related Problems: Conclusions from a Follow-up Study. British Journal of Addiction, 74, 267-
273. 4 Wilson, P. (1980). Drinking in England and Wales. Her Majesty's Stationery Office:
London. 5 Dight, S. E. (1976). Scottish Drinking Habits. Her Majesty's Stationery Office:
London. 6 Plant, M. A. (1978). Occupation and Alcoholism: Cause or Effect? A Controlled
Study of Recruits to the Drink Trade. The International Journal of the Addictions, 13, 605-626. 7
deLint,J. (1973). The Epidemiology of Alcoholism. In: Alcoholism, a medicat profile:
proceedings of the First International Medical Conference on Alcoholism. Kessel, N., Hawker,
A. and Chalke, H. (eds). Edsall: London. 8 Bairison, I. G., Viola, L. and Murray-Lyon, I. M.
(1980). Do housemen take an adequate drinking history? British Medical Journal, 281, 1040. 9
Pequignot, G. and Tuyns, A. (1973). Rations D'Alcool Consommes 'Declarees' et Risques
Pathologiques. Les Colloques de Vlnstitut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicate.
Symposium Franco-Britannique sur I'akoolisme. INSERM/MRC, 54, 23^0. 10 Peraanen, K.
(1974). Validity of Survey Data on Alcohol Use. In: Research Advances in Atcohol and Drug
Problems, 1, 355-374. Gibbins, R.J.. Israel. Y., Kalant, H., Popham, R. E., Schmidt, \V. and
Smart, R. C. (eds). John Wiley and Sons: New York. II Robinson, D., Monk, C. and Bailey, A.
(1979). The Relationship between Scrum Gamma-GIutamyl Transpeptidase Level and Reported
Alcohol Consumption in Healthy Men. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 40, 896-901.