FEATURE
BATTLING WITH BAD VIBRATIONS
An Advanced Textiles Research Group at Nottingham Trent University has been developing a vibration sensing glove for the monitoring of hand-transmitted vibrations, researchers Theodore Hughes-Riley and Tilak Dias tell THS more about the study.
Hand Transmitted Vibrations (HTVs) are most commonly encountered in the construction industry due to the vibrating nature of most power tools; vibration induced injuries can result in a variety of musculoskeletal, neurological, and vascular disorders. The most common disorders are Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) resulting in 635 and 260 new claims to the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit scheme in the UK in 2015 respectively.
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Over the past ten years there have been 7,520 and 3,860 claimants for HAVS and CTS respectively, highlighting the importance of this issue. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has also estimated that about 288,000 people in the UK had a severe form of HAVS in the 1990’s. HAVS is often referred to as Vibration White Finger (VWF) due to a change in colour of the fingers due to damage to the blood vessels.
HAVS results in numbness in the fingers, loss of grip strength,
and reduction in dexterity. This is initially temporary but after prolonged exposure this can become permanent. Severe cases of HAVS can even result in finger loss. CTS can also manifest with the loss of dexterity and strength, with discomfort being another common symptom. Untreated CTS eventually leads to the atrophy of the muscles at the base of the thumb.
In order to reduce the risk to workers the law limits the allowed vibration exposure requiring strict health
TOMORROW’S HEALTH & SAFETY YEARBOOK 2017/18
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