Hand-arm vibration (HAV)

What you need to do

The law requires employers to assess the risk of injury from vibrating power tools and then take positive action to eliminate the risk or reduce it to a low level.

You must go on to inform, instruct and train those workers at risk so they know the symptoms and what is needed for their protection.

Health surveillance is also be required to prevent or diagnose any health effect linked with exposure to hand-arm vibration (HAV).

Effects of exposure
Symptoms of exposure
Who is at risk in construction
Managing the risk

What you need to know

Hand-arm vibration is transmitted from a work activity into the hands and arms. This occurs when someone is:

operating hand-held power tools, e.g. road breakers
using hand-guided equipment, e.g. a vibrating compactor; or
holding materials being processed by a machine.

Effects of exposure

People are more likely to suffer permanent harm if contact with a vibrating tool or workpiece is a regular and frequent part of their job.

Hand-arm vibration can cause a range of conditions called hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). The best known is vibration white finger (VWF), but vibration also links to specific diseases such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Symptoms

For some people symptoms appear after only a few months of exposure but for others it may take years.

Symptoms are likely to get worse with repeated exposure and can lead to permanent damage, disfigurement, limits to the jobs someone can do and damaging effects on family and social activities.

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).

The effects of these symptoms on people include:

pain, distress and disturbed sleep;
inability to do fine work or everyday tasks (e.g. fastening buttons);
reduced ability to work in cold or damp conditions which is likely to trigger a painful finger blanching attack; and
reduced grip strength, which might affect the ability to work safely.