Vibration at Work Assessments

By law, as an employer, you must assess and identify measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to vibration

By law, as an employer, you must assess and identify measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to vibration so that you can protect your employees from risks to their health.

Where the risks are low, the actions you take may be simple and inexpensive, but where the risks are high, you should manage them using a prioritised action plan to control exposure to vibration.

Where required, ensure that:

Control measures to reduce vibration are properly applied;
You provide information, training and health surveillance; and
You review what you are doing if anything changes that may affect exposures to vibration where you work.

Hand-arm vibration (HAV)

Hand-arm vibration is vibration transmitted from work processes into workers’ hands and arms. It can be caused by operating hand-held power tools, such as road breakers, and hand-guided equipment, such as powered lawnmowers, or by holding materials being processed by machines, such as pedestal grinders.

We can undertake an assessment of exposure to HAV.

(Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence).

Whole body vibration (WBV)

Advice on reducing the risks of back and muscle pain caused by shocks/vibrations when driving certain types of vehicle.

Drivers of some mobile machines, including certain tractors, fork lift trucks and quarrying or earth-moving machinery, may be exposed to WBV and shocks, which are associated with back pain. Other work factors, such as posture and heavy lifting, are also known to contribute to back problems for drivers, however further study is needed into the impact of WBV.

We can undertake an assessment of exposure to WBV.