The Control of Vibration at Work Regs would seem to be very difficult to implement for SME's Has anybody come across a reliable and low-cost way of implementing the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 in respect of motor vehicle body shops? Most body shops are small to medium sized enterprises and the HSE advice is quite complex and onerous in terms of the time it would take for them to carry out surveys of all of their activities. The HSE themselves do say that the measurement data provided by manufacturers are not reliable because the method the manufacturers use is flawed. Is there a database anywhere of typical vibration exposure over time from the sort of tools used, e.g. air operated angle grinders, dual action sanders, polishers, impact tools etc? Another related subject is what about tools that are the property of the employee? Many body shop employees have their own hand held rotating tools and the Regulations do state that employers have a duty; _ Reg 3 (2) … where work equipment is used which— (a) was first provided to employees prior to 6th July 2007 by any employer It seems to me that there is a grey area if the employer only has a duty in respect of tools that he has provided but employees use their own tools on his business.

There are a couple of good websites out there with a growing database of measurements (OPERC-HAVTEC and KARLA) and suppliers like Dewalt are approaching this in a fairly diligent fashion. HSE's own guidance does say you can double the manufacturer's figure (by way of a factor of safety) and HSE also provide an excellent on-line calculator. All-in-all, things may not be as onerous as they would first appear. Important too that you consider trigger-times. Quite often the risk is overstated by an inaccurate approximation of use. Irrespective of who supplies the tools, they are being used at work and the duty rests with the employer, so no escape there.

BigRab If there is as you elude towards, no specific duty to assess employees own tools under the Vibration Regs; then I would have thought that general duties under the HASAWA 1974, and more specifically the MHASAWR 1999 would apply. So would an employer not therefore have to assess the risks from using any vibrating (or non-vibrating) power tool (whether employee or employer owned) used at work, and then reduce any significant risk so far as was reasonably practicable? Therefore I think that even if there is a possible loophole in the Vibration Regs, then this would be plugged so to speak by requirements of other legislative requirements. Granted you could argue that you would not need to assess vibration levels for employees own tools under the Vibration Regs, but this I feel would not get you very far, as any Enforcing Body/Court would then question the suitability and sufficiency of any such risk assessment performed under the MHASAWR 1999. With regards to employees using there own tools without the consent/knowledge of the employer, then again any employer stating “well to be honest, I didn’t know they were using their own tools” would in my humble opinion be walking on fairly thin ice so to speak. But hey who knows, as we all know it’s the courts that decide, or in the event of a compensation claim then again in my humble opinion, some degree of commercial decision can influence an insurance company’s decision on whether it decides to pay out or fight (particularly for low cost claims). Granted that claims for Vibration White Finger would most probably not be low cost claims for the insurers (and would definitely not be considered as trivial by the person suffering from the symptoms). Perhaps one of the legal experts on this forum could answer your query on the application of the Vibration Regs with regards to assessing employee owned tools. Cheers Steve