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Posted By Shane Johnston
We use annual tool box talks given by the team leader to cover a number of subjects. Just one being Hand Arm Vibration. This covers symptoms, maintenance of equipment, length of time tools can be used for, etc etc. Employees are told during this TBT that should they develop any of the symptoms they should make an appontment with one of our Occupational Health Advisers (Registerd Nurses with an Occ Health Degree).
The majority of our workforce (2000 people) use air guns etc, and I am loathed to introduce formal health surveillance for HAVs simply because of the workload on the OHAs. Would the fact that the employee has been made aware of the symptoms, and what to do if they develop any symptom be seen as adequate?
After all, even if we did introduce mandatory health surveillance on a regular basis, the individual would still need to report any symptoms between screenings.
Shane.
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Posted By Neil Pearson See Directive 2002/44/EC on vibration, at http://www.europa.eu.int...n/search/search_oj.html. This basically repeats normal practice on health surveillance, i.e. it depends on risk. But it also says that surveillance should be provided where the action levels are exceeded.
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Posted By Jack
It can only be determined by your assessment. Have you monitored exposure? If not I think that should be the starting point.
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Posted By Chris Turner
Shane,
You must have an initial assessment of the level of exposure, this is particularly important due to the nature of the tooling that you have mentioned. The assessment, as with noise, must be done by a competent person i.e. trained and experienced in using the measuring equipment and interpreting the results. Please contact me if you want to discuss further, as I have undertaken this assessment on a number of occaisions in past positions.
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Posted By Peter J Harvey
This will really depend on your risk assessment as previously mentioned. I would start with this and gathering some data on the tools that you use. You may also want to read some of the HSE guidance and get up to speed with the Physical Agents Directive. I have sent you a copy of our policy, this may help and gives guidance on the way we have interpretent the need for health monitoring.
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