Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Vibration at
work
[PDF 4.19mb] survey in 1997-98 gave a prevalence estimate of 288,000 sufferers from vibration white finger (VWF) in Great Britain (255,000 males and 33,000 females respectively) see report summary “findings on health”. Vibration white finger (VWF) is a disorder of the blood supply to the fingers and hand which can be caused by regular use of vibrating hand-held tools. Estimates of its prevalence, including longstanding as well as new cases, from a specific survey commissioned by HSE and carried out by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in 1997/98 [PDF 4.19mb]. This survey was based on questionnaires administered to representative samples of the population, but there were differences in methodology. When comparing the results, it should be borne in mind that the symptoms of finger blanching that are characteristic of VWF can also occur in the general population independently of vibration exposure.
Tables IIS03 and IIS04 show that VWF is the most common prescribed disease under the Industrial Injuries Scheme (IIS) in recent years. Sufferers from VWF may have a permanent loss of sensation in their fingers, causing difficulty in picking up and manipulating small objects. However, while VWF and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (see below) qualify for compensation under the IIS, the loss of sensation does not.
Since 1995/96 the numbers of DWP assessed cases have been over 3000 yearly until 2001/02, when they fell to 2428. Prior to 1995/96 they fluctuated quite widely, peaking at 5403 in 1990-91, then falling to 1425 in 1993-94. These wide variations, together with the fact that the period of vibration exposure needed to produce the diseases is usually both long and variable, indicate that the numbers are unlikely to reflect the true underlying incidence of the disease but are strongly influenced by sufferers’ propensity to claim compensation.
The industry group with by far the highest average rate of new assessments in the years 2002 to 2004 was extraction, energy and water supply with 304.1 new assessments per 100 000 employees, as shown in Table IIS10. However, due to the marked contraction of the coal mining industry over recent years affecting the denominator, this rate should be treated with considerable caution. Coal miners in general seem to be more aware than workers in other industries of the possibility of claiming compensation, due to the efforts of trade unions to make them aware, and the publicity given to civil litigation concerning VWF in miners. Such influences probably explain, at least in part, why such a high proportion of officially recognized VWF cases come from this one industry. Other industry groups with high rates of new assessed cases are construction (12.1 cases per 100 000 employees), manufacturing (7.4), and agriculture forestry and fishing (2.4) – not surprisingly since these groups include industries where there is substantial use of vibrating tools.
Table THORM01 shows that an estimated 686 cases of VWF and related conditions were seen for the first time by occupational physicians in the OPRA scheme in 2004, compared with 245 in 2003 and 893 in 2002. An estimated 182 cases were seen by rheumatologists participating in the Musculoskeletal Occupational Surveillance Scheme (MOSS) in 2004, compared with 190 in 2003 and 238 in 2002. In both schemes, the vast majority of cases continued to be males.
Other disorders may also be caused by vibration, such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), where symptoms are thought to arise in part from entrapment or compression of nerves in the wrist. CTS caused by hand-held vibrating tools was made a prescribed disease from April 1993. Since then annual numbers of new assessed cases have increased from 267 in 1993/94 to 795 in 2001/02 and 1030 in 2002/03. There has, however, been a decrease in 2003/04 where only 820 new cases have been assessed This disease may have other occupational causes, such as repetitive twisting or gripping movements of the hand, but such cases do not qualify for compensation by DWP.