Health and Safety Kit: Vibrations

As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure your workers are protected from any hazards that could cause them injury. That includes workers who are expected to operate power tools and or heavy machinery over the course of their working day as they are susceptible to a wide variety of health conditions related to vigorous and constant vibrations.

Injuries caused by vibrations can result from a wide range of tasks and in a variety of industries, but are most common in industries such as construction and civil work, engineering and forestry.

The Hazards

Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome

Handheld power tools such as road breakers, chainsaws, powered gardening tools, and others can cause a condition known as Hand-Arm Vibration or HAV. Holding onto materials as they are being fed into lathes, pedestal grinders, and other stationary machines can also cause HAV.

After years of exposure, Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) may develop. This serious medical condition is characterized by muscular damage, degeneration of the joints, poor circulation, and nerve damage in the arms and hands caused by years of repetitive HAV.

Vibration White Finger

Another serious health concern related to HAV is Vibration White Finger (VWF). The symptoms of VWF may include numbness, tingling, and a characteristic whiteness on parts of the finger resulting from a lack of proper circulation.

Workers with this debilitating condition lose a significant amount of the sensation of touch in their affected fingers. They also experience a significant amount of excessive pain in their digits when the circulation returns, and the whiteness suddenly turns to a bright, throbbing red.

Whole Body Vibration Syndrome

Another common workplace-related health condition is Whole-Body Vibration (WBV). Workers who frequently experience WBV are those that spend long hours at work sitting, lying against, and/or standing on a vibrating surface. For instance, a tractor driver who habitually works on rough terrain will be susceptible to all of the vibrations through the driver’s seat.

Legal & Moral Responsibilities of Employers

As a business owner, supervisor or employer in charge of projects in the areas of construction, engineering, mining, agriculture, or others where long hours of exposure to vibrations from machinery is a serious concern, it is your duty to protect your employers and members of the general public from this and other serious hazards.

Not only is this your moral obligation, but you are also legally liable according to the general health and safety legislation.

The applicable vibration regulations require you to control the risks from vibration and provide provide information, instruction and training to employees at risk. You must also monitor the level of risk, via regular and thorough risk assessments.

To be specific, the ‘Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005’ is quite precise as to how job site vibrations are to be regulated. Enacted in 2005, these regulations place limits on the Exposure Action Values (EAVs) and Exposure Limit Values (ELVs).

EAVs are the pre-determined maximum levels of vibration.

Exposure Action Values and Exposure Limit Values

An Exposure Action Value (EAV) refers to a degree of vibration at which action must be taken in order to avoid any hazardous prolonged exposure. An Exposure Limit Value (ELV) is a maximum level of vibration that should not be exceeded in any single day.

If we base our calculations on average exposure over the course of an eight hour work day, the maximum values according to the law are the following:

Hand-Arm Vibration:

Maximum EAV: 2.5m/s²

Maximum ELV: 5.0m/s² A(8)

Whole-Body Vibration:

Maximum EAV 0.5m/s²

Maximum ELV 1.15m/s²

Taking Responsibility

Most work-related injuries are easily avoided with the right knowledge and risk awareness. Do you know if your machinery meets the legal standards regarding EAVs and ELVs? If not, now is time to take control of the situation once and for all.

To keep yourself protected from legal action, and your staff protected from harm, you need to be completely aware of the state of your vibration generating machinery and all other risks on the job site. The easiest way to obtain this crucial knowledge is through an accredited health and safety risk assessment course.

Working with a specialised training provider, such as Health and Safety Training Ltd, you will receive a tailored risk assessment course that considers any particular risks present at your place of work. This can include the risks presented by vibrations, such as HAVS, WBVS, and VWF, so you can identify the potential hazards, understand the dangers and take steps to reduce or eliminate the risks.