Its best known effect is vibration-induced white finger (VWF), a term introduced by the Industrial Injury Advisory Council in 1970.
[2][3] Excessive exposure to hand arm vibrations can result in various patterns of diseases casually known as HAVS or VWF.
While safety engineers worldwide are collaboratively working on instilling both an Exposure Action Value and an Exposure Limit Value similar to the occupational noise standards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the only regulatory public safety administration in the United States, has yet to offer either official values in the U.S.[5] Occupations at risk of Hand and Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVs) includes Mining, Foundry, and highest exposure being within construction.
[6] Consequently, HAVs is also linked to this field's ergonomic health issues due to the frequent use of dentistry hand-piece tools.
[7] As reported by the Vibration Directive of European Legislation, real-time or one-time use of the dental tools does not surpass the exposure limit.
[7] However, a long history of frequent handling of these tools has later been associated with Dental workers experiencing HAVs with inclusion of outside factors, such as high Body Mass Index (BMI).
[7] While these workplace industries more prominently affect men in the working population, there are still a significant number of women who also experience HAVs.
[11] The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety promotes the ACGIH Threshold Limit Values shown by the adjacent table.
[13] There have been additional recommendations based from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to minimize exposure of vibrating tools.
These implementations include engineering control, medical surveillance, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to mitigate vibration exposure.
[14] Good practice in industrial health and safety management requires that worker vibration exposure is assessed in terms of acceleration, amplitude, and duration.
Act 1974,[17] is the legislation in the UK that governs exposure to vibration and assists with preventing HAVS occurring.
[citation needed] There are only a few ways to lower the severity and risk of damage from HAVS without complete engineering redesign on the operation of the tools.
Some of the side effects of using hand arm vibrations are discomfort in the head and jaw, chest and abdomen pains, and changing speech.
While there are different tools used to monitor HAV, a simple system can be used in organizations highlighting excess use of grinding disks when using a hand held angle grinder.
A UK government fund set up to cover subsequent claims by ex-coalminers had exceeded £100 million in payments by 2005.