Vibration

The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 aim to protect workers from the risk to health from vibration and covers hand-arm and whole body vibration.

Hand-arm vibration is vibration transmitted into the hands and arms. This can come from regular and frequent use of hand-held power tools such as grinders, hand-guided equipment and by holding materials being worked by hand-fed machines and can lead to ill-health known as:

• Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) – symptoms include tingling and numbness in the fingers, loss of strength in the hands, the fingers going white and becoming red and painful on recovery
• Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) – symptoms include tingling, numbness and weakness in the hand

With continued exposure to vibration, symptoms may become prolonged or permanent.

The regulations require that the risks from vibration are controlled and provide exposure limit values that should not be exceeded.