Do you have a hand-arm vibration problem at work? This will depend on whether your employees regularly and frequently work with vibrating tools and equipment and/or handle vibrating materials. It will also depend on how long your employees are exposed to vibration and at what level. As a simple guide you will probably need to do something about vibration exposures if any of the following apply: Do your employees complain of tingling and numbness in their hands or fingers after using vibrating tools? Do your employees hold work pieces, which vibrate while being processed by powered machinery such as pedestal grinders? Do your employees regularly use hand-held or hand guided power tools and machines such as: Concrete breakers, concrete pokers; Sanders, grinders, disc cutters; Hammer drills; Chipping hammers; Chainsaws, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, Powered mowers; Scabblers or needle guns.
Do your employees regularly operate: Do you work in an industry where exposures to vibration are particularly high, such as construction, foundries, or heavy steel fabrication/boatards?
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WHAT THE LAW REQUIRES
The regulations prescribe the measures to be taken to protect employees from the risks arising from vibrations owing to their effects on safety and health, in particular muscular/bone structure, neurological and vascular disorders.
The regulations set what are termed as ‘exposure action values’ i.e. the level of exposure which if exceeded requires specific action to be taken to reduce risk. Also ‘exposure limit values’ which are the levels of daily exposure which must not be exceeded for any employee. An employer must ensure that the risk arising from exposure of his or her employees to noise or vibration is either eliminated at source or reduced to a minimum. Where employees are likely to be exposed at or above a lower action value an employer must make a suitable and appropriate assessment of risk. Copies of both regulations can be downloaded from the HSA website at www.hsa.ie.
EXPOSURE LIMITS
For hand-arm vibration...
the daily exposure limit value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 5 m/s2 ,
the daily exposure action value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 2.5 m/s2.
Note: The regulations also set our exposure limits for whole-body vibration...
the daily exposure limit value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 1.15 m/s2,
the daily exposure action value standardised to an eight-hour reference period shall be 0.5 m/s2.
The methodology for assessment and testing here is different from hand-arm vibration measurement. This service we also offer and information can be provided on request.
What health effects can hand-arm vibration cause? Hand-arm vibration is vibration transmitted from work processes into workers' hands and arms. It can be caused by operating hand-held power tools, such as road breakers, and hand-guided equipment, such as powered lawnmowers, or by holding materials being processed by machines, such as pedestal grinders. Regular and frequent exposure to hand-arm vibration can lead to permanent health effects. This is most likely when contact with a vibrating tool or work process is a regular part of a person’s job. Occasional exposure is unlikely to cause ill health. Hand-arm vibration can cause a range of conditions collectively known as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), as well as specific diseases such as carpal tunnel syndrome. What are the early symptoms? Identifying signs and symptoms at an early stage is important. It will allow you, as the employer, to take action to prevent the health effects from becoming serious for your employee. The symptoms include any combination of: Tingling and numbness in the fingers; Not being able to feel things properly; Loss of strength in the hands; Fingers going white (blanching) and becoming red and painful on recovery (particularly in the cold and wet, and probably only in the tips at first).
For some people, symptoms may appear after only a few months of exposure, but for others they may take a few years. They are likely to get worse with continued exposure to vibration and may become permanent. What effects do these symptoms have? The effects on people include: Pain, distress and sleep disturbance; Inability to do fine work (e.g. assembling small components) or everyday tasks (e.g. fastening buttons); Reduced ability to work in cold or damp conditions (ie most outdoor work) which would trigger painful finger blanching attacks; Reduced grip strength, which might affect the ability to do work safely.
These effects can severely limit the jobs an affected person is able to do, as well as many family and social activities. |
RISK ASSESSMENTS
By law, as an employer, you must assess and identify measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to hand-arm vibration so that you can protect your employees from risks to their health.
Where the risks are low, the actions you take may be simple and inexpensive, but where the risks are high, you should manage them using a prioritised action plan to control exposure to hand-arm vibration.
Where required, ensure that:
Control measures to reduce vibration are properly applied; and
You provide information, training and health surveillance.
Review what you are doing if anything changes that may affect exposures to vibration where you work.
Assess who is at risk
If there is likely to be a risk you need to assess who is at risk and to what degree. The risk assessment needs to enable you to decide whether your employees’ exposures are likely to be above the Exposure Action Value (EAV) or the Exposure Limit Values (ELV) as set out in the 2006 Regulations and to identify which work activities you need to control.
The person who does the risk assessment should have read and understood the Regulations and their interpretation, have a good knowledge of the work processes used in your business and be able to collect and understand relevant information. They should also be able to develop a plan of action based on their findings and ensure it is introduced and effective. They will need to:
make a list of equipment that may cause vibration, and what sort of work it is used for;
collect information about the equipment from equipment handbooks (make, model, power, vibration risks, vibration information etc);
make a list of employees who use the vibrating equipment and which jobs they do;
note as accurately as possible how long employees’ hands are actually in contact with the
equipment while it is vibrating – in some cases this ‘trigger time’ may only be a few minutes in several hours of work with the equipment;
ask employees which equipment seems to have high vibration and about any other problems they may have in using it, e.g. its weight, awkward postures needed to use the tool, difficulty in holding and operating it;
record the relevant information they have collected and their assessment of who is likely to be at risk.
How should this information be used?
Group the work activities according to whether they are high, medium or low risk. Plan actions to control risks for the employees at greatest risk first. For example…
High risk (above the ELV)
Employees who regularly operate:
Employees in this group are likely to be above the ELV set out in the Regulations. The limit value could be exceeded in a much shorter time in some cases, especially where the tools are not the most suitable for the job.
Medium risk (above the EAV)
Employees who regularly operate:
Employees in this group are likely to be exposed above the EAV set out in the 2006 Regulations.
Is measurement of operator’s exposure to vibration needed?
The rough groupings described above should be enough for you to do a basic risk assessment which will enable you to decide whether exposures are likely to exceed EAV and ELV and to allow you to plan and prioritise your control actions effectively.
For those exposures likely to exceed the EAV, have measurements made to estimate exposures so as to be more certain of whether the risk is high, medium or low.
These exposure measurements will help you...
decide which control actions might be most effective and practicable in reducing vibration exposure;
be more certain whether exposures are likely to exceed the action or limit values;
check whether your controls are effective.
MEASUREMENT & ONGOING MONITORING
Mechanical vibration is measured with suitable, calibrated equipment as per ISO 5349-1:2001, 'Mechanical Vibration - Measurement and Evaluation of Human Exposure to Hand-Transmitted Vibration - Part 1: General Requirements'.
There are hundreds of different types of hand-held power tools and equipment which can cause ill health from vibration and all of which may require vibration measurement. Some of the more common ones are...
Chainsaws;
Concrete breakers/road breakers;
Cut-off saws (for stone etc);
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.
COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN REPORT
We provide a written Report in all instances which will detail...
The Report will aid in demonstrating that you, as an employer, have fulfilled your obligation under health & Safety Law to do 'all that is reasonably practicable' to create and maintain a safe workplace.
