As a leading provider of Health & Safety eLearning, our experts are often asked about Hand-Arm Vibration. We’ve collected all of those questions and answered them for you below…
Hand-arm vibration was originally known as ‘vibration white finger’. It is only caused by handheld equipment rather than whole body vibration.
Hand-arm vibration syndrome causes damage to the blood vessels and nerves in the arms and hands. This can result in individual fingers going white when the hand is exposed to cold and ‘pins and needles’ can occur. Damage to nerves is permanent whereas damage to blood vessels can reverse to a certain extent when taken away from cold exposure.
Exposure action value (EAV) is the daily amount of vibration exposure. If vibration exposure is above 2.5 m/s² A(8), employers are required to take action to control exposure. The exposure limit value (ELV) is the maximum amount of vibration employees can be exposed to daily. The ELV for hand-arm vibration is a daily exposure of 5 m/s²
Carpal tunnel can take months to get better and can be caused by using vibrating tools. It is something that you can treat yourself and is the pressure on a nerve in your wrist which can cause tingling, pain or numbness in your hand/fingers. A wrist splint can be used to treat CTS and can release pressure on the nerve.
The best way of dealing with vibration exposure would be to try and eliminate the vibration exposure altogether with a substitute. If it cannot be eliminated, then the equipment that helps reduce vibration can help significantly.
Anti-vibration gloves are not an effective measure against hand-arm vibration. No gloves provide full and effective protection from vibration from hand-held tools.
Yes. If there is a possibility that someone may come to harm through vibration in the workplace then it should be written down as part of the risk assessment employers conduct.
