Scots oil workers have ballooned in weight by nearly 20 per cent since 1985, according to a new report.
In its latest health and safety report, industry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) said the average weight of men working in the offshore oil and gas industry rose by 19 per cent between 1985 and 2009.
A typical man working on the North Sea rigs now weighs more than 14 stone compared to under 12 stone in 1985.
The increase will fuel growing concern over the health and shape of the thousands of offshore workers, as well as the safety implications of transporting bigger employees by helicopter.
Earlier this year regulators said that from April 1, 2015, oil workers unable to get through aircraft emergency windows while wearing their survival suits would not be allowed to board helicopters.
But the Civil Aviation Authority later insisted nobody would lose their job for being overweight.
The OGUK report said: "The last survey of offshore workers' body sizes was completed almost 30 years ago and since then the average weight of the workforce has increased by around 19 per cent.
"The heaviest individuals are proportionally even heavier."
Overall, the report offers a mixed picture of offshore health and safety performance during the past year.
The period covers the ditching of a North Sea helicopter, with the loss of four lives, on its way to Sumburgh Airport.
An Air Accident Investigation Branch inquiry into the disaster is currently continuing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article