Hand-arm vibration - Stage 2: Assess health risks

Before you identify and assess the risk of developing an injury from exposure to hand-arm vibration, ask yourself ‘Do we really need to use vibrating equipment?' If the answer is ‘no' you might save some time and trouble.

How do I assess the risks?

Your HAVS risk assessment is to help you decide how to protect the health of employees who are exposed to vibration. It should:

• identify where there might be a risk from vibration:
  • make a list of equipment that generates vibration and the work that it is used for;
  • ask workers which equipment causes problems, whether due to weight, posture or difficulty in holding the tool and operating it:
  • collect information about the equipment from manuals and labels (make, model, power, vibration risks, vibration information etc);
• identify who is likely to be affected, including employees who need health surveillance and any workers who are at particular risk;
  • make a list of the workers who use the equipment, together with the jobs they do;
• provide a reasonable estimate of exposures:
  • record how long a worker's hands are actually in contact with the equipment while it is vibrating - in some cases the ‘trigger time' may only be a few minutes in several hours work;
• identify what you need to do to comply with the law (eg are any additional control measures needed and if so, where and of what type?).

Generally, you will need to record the risk assessment findings and you will need to check that control measures deal with the risk effectively. You will need to review the risk assessment if relevant aspects of work change. It is also good practice to review the risk assessment regularly.

Getting started

The HAVS website gives advice on how to assess the risks from vibration and estimate employees exposure.

Vibration databases

In recent years work has been carried out within the industry to provide vibration values that represent the ‘in use' situation more closely.

An industry working group decided that there is a need to ‘provide a database of vibration values to inform end-users of the potential risk'. This database, hosted by the Hire Association Europe (HAE) contains data that is:

• reliable;
• suitable for end-user risk assessment purposes;
• free to use;
• consistent with the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (as amended); and
• where reliable productivity information is available, end-users will be able to access this.

Hire tools and equipment

Some tool and equipment hire shops use ‘traffic light systems' to help contractors select vibrating tools and use them safely. These systems indicate potential vibration exposure and the trigger time for specific tools.

These positive initiatives have helped to improve awareness of vibration risks and encourage responsible tool hire. Even so, you are advised to check that the equipment is suitable and will not create a larger vibration exposure in the actual circumstances of use.