Hand arm vibrations
Encyclopedia
In terms of occupational safety and health HAV stands for Hand Arm Vibrations and is directly responsible for Hand Arm Vibrations Syndrome
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and chemical hazards. 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.
of the British Government suggests to use an Exposure Action Value of 2.5 m/s2 and an Exposure Limit Value of 5.0 m/s2.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety promotes the ACGIH Threshold Limit Values shown by the table to the right. When the time-weighted acceleration data exceeds these numbers for the duration, damage from HAVS begins.
. Just an example out of the database, the reciprocating saws look to have extremely violent vibrations with one of the saws vibrations reaching 50 m/s2 in one hand and over 35 m/s2 in the other.
There are various occupational standards of vibration measurement for HAV in use in the United States. They are ANSI S3.34, ACGIH-HAV standard, and NIOSH #89-106. Internationally,
European Union Directive 2002/44/EC and ISO5349 are the vibration measurement standards for HAV.
Vibration white finger
Vibration white finger is a secondary form of Raynaud's syndrome, an industrial injury triggered by continuous use of vibrating hand-held machinery. Use of the term Vibration White Finger has generally been superseded by Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome or HAVS...
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Description
Exposure to hand arm vibrations is a respectively newer occupational hazard in the work place. While hand arm vibrations have been occurring ever since the first usage of the power tool, concern over damage due to HAVS has lagged behind its fellow hazards such as NoiseNoise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
and chemical hazards. 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
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. It was created by Congress of the United States under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970...
, the only regulatory public safety administration in the United States, has yet to offer either official values in the U.S.
Suggested Guidelines
While OSHA has yet to supply these values, other countries agencies have. The Health and Safety ExecutiveHealth and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
of the British Government suggests to use an Exposure Action Value of 2.5 m/s2 and an Exposure Limit Value of 5.0 m/s2.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety promotes the ACGIH Threshold Limit Values shown by the table to the right. When the time-weighted acceleration data exceeds these numbers for the duration, damage from HAVS begins.
Damage Prevention
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. A few examples could be increasing the dampening through thicker gloves and increasing the trigger size of the tool to decrease the stress concentration of the vibrations on the contact area, but the best course of action would be to buy safer tools that vibrate less. These Exposure Action Values and Exposure Limit Values seem rather low, when compared to lab tested data, shown by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Power Tools DatabaseNIOSH Power Tools Database
The NIOSH Power Tools Database contains sound power levels, sound pressure levels, and vibrations data for a variety of common power tools that have been tested by researchers. Data are collected for both the unloaded and loaded use of power tools...
. Just an example out of the database, the reciprocating saws look to have extremely violent vibrations with one of the saws vibrations reaching 50 m/s2 in one hand and over 35 m/s2 in the other.
There are various occupational standards of vibration measurement for HAV in use in the United States. They are ANSI S3.34, ACGIH-HAV standard, and NIOSH #89-106. Internationally,
European Union Directive 2002/44/EC and ISO5349 are the vibration measurement standards for HAV.