Activity 42

After watching a range of hand tools and vehicles in use, you are concerned that some workers may be exposed to harmful levels of hand-arm and whole-body vibration. You realise you need to raise awareness of the risk with the senior management team.

Make notes for the next SMT meeting, under the following headings:

• Definition of vibration
• Basic concepts of displacement, velocity, amplitude, frequency and acceleration and vibration dose
• The groups of workers at risk from, and the physiological and ill-health effects of, exposure to:
• Whole body vibration (WBV)
• Hand-arm vibration (HAV), including aggravating factors (eg low temperatures smoking) and the use of the Stockholm scale to indicate severity.

(1200 - 1500 words approx.)