The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 require employers to control the effects of vibration on health. Hand-arm vibration is vibration transmitted from work processes into the hands and arms of employees. It can be caused by operating hand-held power tools or by holding materials being processed by machines.
Hand-arm vibration can cause a range of conditions collectively known as handarm vibration syndrome (HAVS). It can also cause specific diseases such as carpal tunnel syndrome and a form of Reynaud's disease known as vibration white finger (VWF). The symptoms of HAVS include tingling and numbness in the fingers, inability to feel things properly, loss of strength in the hands, the fingers tirning white and becoming red and painful on recovery.
Examples of tools and equipment that can cause risks to health include chainsaws, concrete breakers/road breakers, hammer drills, hand-held grinders, impact wrenches, jigsaws, needle scalers, pedestal grinders, polishers, power hammers and chisels, powered lawn mowers, powered sanders, scabblers, strimmers/brush cutters.
Whole-body vibration is shaking or jolting of the human body through a supporting surface (usually a seat or the floor), for example when driving or riding on a vehicle along an unmade road, operating earthmoving machines or standing on a structure attached to a large, powerful, fixed machine which is impacting or vibrating.
Whole body vibration can cause back pain and other musculoskeletal problems. However, this is often complicated by other occupational factors such as workplace ergonomics, environment, postures and manual handling.
Examples of equipment that can cause risks to health include construction, mining and quarrying machines and vehicles, particularly earth-moving machines such as scrapers, bulldozers and building site dumpers and tractors and other agricultural and forestry machinery, particularly when used in transportation, tedding (turning hay), primary cultivation and mowing.
JRL Solutions Ltd provides a one day course for managers and those who are interested in vibration and those who will be carrying out vibration assessment.
The syllabus includes:-
- potential health effects of exposure to vibration
- the basic physics of vibration
- how vibration causes ill health
- legislative framework
- interpretation of action levels and limit values
- measuring vibration
- how to carry out a vibration assessment
- how to control the effects of vibration
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