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On vibration

[Article]

http www hse gov uk vibration hav vibrationcalc htm

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29 cases of hand-arm vibration syndrome

Background

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (WMBC) employed workers whose duties included grass, hedge and tree cutting. The work involved extensive use of vibrating tools. Between July 2005 and December 2009, 29 of these employees developed hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). The exposure to prolonged hand-arm vibration had caused damage to nerves and blood vessels in their hands. As a result, they were suffering from poor grip, numbness, tingling, acute sensitivity to cold and pain on rewarming of the hands.

Statutory report

Some incidents of hand-arm vibration syndrome, including the ones in this case, are reportable to the HSE under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. On receiving the reports from WMBC the HSE investigated. Inspectors found that although it had taken action to offer alternative work to employees where it was needed, WMBC hadn’t done anything in advance to prevent the illness. At the hearing, WMBC pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005. It was fined a total of £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,417.

Are your staff at risk?

Staff are at risk if they regularly use handheld vibrating tools, or receive vibration to their hands by other means, e.g. by holding work pieces against rotating machines. Other power tools which may cause HAVS include sanders, road breakers, scabblers, hammer drills, angle grinders, impact wrenches, needle scalers and pedestal grinders.

How should you deal with it?

WMBC’s main mistake was that it had failed to assess the risk of using the equipment. If it had done so it could have taken action to limit its employees’ exposure to vibration before it caused any damage.

Tip 1. As a rough guide, it’s likely that employees are exposed to harmful levels of vibration if, in an average day, they use hammer action tools for 15 minutes or vibrating tools for an hour.

Tip 2. If usage is borderline, then collect data on the hours of operation and obtain information from the tool manufacturer regarding the level of vibration that may be delivered to the hand. Feed this into the HSE’s vibration calculator which will tell you if the exposure is excessive (see The next step).

Tip 3. To reduce exposure to hand-arm vibration, consider: (1) alternative methods of work; (2) lower vibration tools; (3) changing job scheduling; (4) improving workplace design; and (5) providing warm gloves.

Tip 4. If there’s regular use of vibrating tools you should implement a health surveillance programme. As we stated recently, this is relatively easy to do (yr.11, iss.9, pg.6, see The next step).

For a link to the HSE’s calculator (HS 11.12.02A) and for a previous article (HS 11.12.02B), visit http://tipsandadvice-healthandsafety.co.uk/download.