Traditional methods of assessment and subsequent generic control measures can help some, but inevitably not all workers, and can result in an underestimation of vibration exposure by up to 76%, putting people at serious risk.
Some 15 years on from the UK regulations being put in place, HAVS is still the highest reported RIDDOR for industrial illness and the Health and Safety Executive states that 10 per cent of all workers who operate at what is considered by most as a safe level of exposure, the exposure action value (EAV), will develop HAVS within 12 years.
There has also been a 300% rise in financial penalties relating to HAVS fines since new sentencing guidelines were introduced in 2016 with a GBP 500,000 fine imposed on a major utilities player in 2018. A fine relating to their employees operating handheld power tools such as hydraulic breakers and floor saws. So how is the risk from exposure to hand arm vibration assessed and controlled and why is that not doing enough to keep people from developing the disease?
Cause of HAVS
Exposure to vibration through the hand and arm system can cause serious vascular, neurological and musculoskeletal damage which is collectively diagnosed as the industrial disease hand arm vibration syndrome. It affects sufferers from even carrying out simple tasks like holding a cup of tea, getting dressed or reading a newspaper. Many HAVS sufferers are forced to change career or stop work entirely. 300,000 UK workers already suffer from HAVS and the HSE estimate more than 2 million workers are exposed to high levels of vibration.
Alan Finley, a HAVS sufferer outlined the impact the disorder has had on his life: “When I first started there were no such things as monitoring or anything like that. You would grab a tool and use it. You didn’t know the consequences or what damage it was doing to you.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night with cramps. It would be like as if you had been lying on your hands and they had gone numb. Even if I picked up a little drill to do a few bits and bobs around the house, I felt the tingling and would be in constant pain.”
Legal Requirements
The likelihood of developing the disease is linked to a person’s average daily exposure to hand and arm vibration (HAV) which is quantified by determining the duration of exposure and the vibration magnitude during exposure.
The regulations require employers to carry out suitable and sufficient assessments of risk, implement occupational health screening when the risk is of a certain level and most importantly reduce the risk as low as reasonably practicable.
To risk assess exposure to vibration requires an employee to estimate the duration of exposure during a task and the probable vibration magnitude faced during that task. If an assessment is above the action value, then occupational a health screening is required, and action needed to reduce the risk. If the assessment is above what is termed the limit value, then no one should be asked to carry out the task.
What’s not working?
In 2018 Reactec reported at the 53rd Conference on the Human Response to Vibration held at Ascot, some key findings from a statistical analysis of data from 4,000 operators who were monitored for daily exposure to HAV over a nine-month period.
The analysis showed that 19.6% of the individuals accounted for 80% of the total exposure and had their risk underestimated by an average of 76%. The work study below helps explain the concentration of risk within the minority as it shows how actual work can vary dramatically from the expected assessed risk. In the study individuals go about work differently despite being deployed to the same task resulting in disparate levels of actual risk across individuals with significant variance to the risk expected. Under assessment of risk in the conference report is explained by the large variance from the levels of vibration assumed for risk assessments and the actual vibration levels experienced by individuals as a consequence of the tool application, condition, accessory or the operator’s skill.
In a detailed work study with a leading utilities company, it was reported that individuals who were deployed to do a very specific task with the same tool type, while deployed in multiperson teams, could face very different levels of HAV exposure.
Supported by Reactec, the company conducted an exercise in which 14 operators deployed in small teams excavated a specific hole size using the same tool. Individuals were closely monitored with accurate real-time measurement of time of exposure and vibration magnitude during the activity. Five workers exceeded the level determined as the expected risk for the activity, and one individual called Pete, had an exposure close to the daily maximum allowed by the regulations and six times higher than some of his colleagues. Conventional risk assessment did not predict this risk, but real-use monitoring identified the actual risk faced.
So, what to do?
First of all, ask yourself how likely are your employees to be consistent with risk assessment and how likely will they follow the controls that were put in place to keep them at a safe level of exposure? If you want to be sure that they are doing what is expected and that your controls are effective you will need a level of monitoring exposure to HAV. Unfortunately, the standards for assessing HAV exposure based on taking a measurement of a tool’s vibration level are not suited to monitoring an individual’s all day use of multiple tools without being accompanied by a skilled technician. As a result, there are no devices on the marketplace, for unaccompanied monitoring of exposure which fully comply with requirements of the standards. However, the regulations only require that the vibration magnitude used for assessing HAV risk be the probable vibration magnitude and the HSE advise that measurement of vibration magnitude is not a requirement. Decisions on monitoring technology that suits your work environment can therefore be made on the ease of use of the technology and whether the exposure data from that technology is representative of the real workplace activity.
Real tool use and all-day exposure data will go further in ensuring the right priorities for operator training, tool maintenance and tool elimination. With the onset of the connected worker with body worn sensors, data-driven decisions can drive effective change. Why not use them to drive down this preventable industrial disease?
Harry Gardner, a health, safety and environment consultant, believes employers should go above and beyond what regulations appear to demand: “There is no such thing as a safe level of vibration, if you are working to minimum standards, you are just dicing with someone’s health. We should always be striving to achieve the lowest possible level.”
Technology, that has become available since the legislation came into force in 2005, can enable managers to have a heightened yet practical real-time risk assessment. More accurate tool use tracking and real time vibration exposure data improves the visibility of worker exposure to vibration. By providing more representative risk data for each individual, an employer is better enabled to implement controls to reduce their employees risk.
Jacqui McLaughlin, CEO of Reactec, said: “Wearable technology like HAVwear enables employers to comply with the 2005 Regulations and to go further in protecting employees. HSE guidance advises that wearables are acceptable for risk assessments when used in trigger time mode, making HAVwear a viable option for those in charge of risk assessments.
However, HAVwear also provides an assessment of real-tool use. Such data gives unique insights into an individual’s vibration exposure once controls have been put in place. If this shows an individual is at higher risk than the trigger time mode assessment suggests, it can be invaluable in investigating the reasons for the increased risk and taking steps to reduce exposure. Employers are then fully meeting regulatory objectives to reduce HAVS risks as low as reasonably practicable.”
What Is The HAVwear System
HAVwear system automates the whole process from calculating HSE exposure points in the field to viewing the collated data as actionable intelligence online.
HAVWEAR is a wearable device giving unique insight into individual exposure levels to hand arm vibration and personal alarms to directly influence at risk behaviour. The HAVwear simultaneously calculates and reports an individual’s exposure risk based on your assumed tool vibration magnitude and real-time vibration magnitude experienced by a wearer.
Tool operator’s allowable exposure limits can be customised for individuals. This can allow operatives with early stage hand arm vibration syndrome who may have been removed from tool use completely to return to work but on a restricted and controlled basis. Also, with an ability to see who is at greater risk, occupational health screening can be prioritised, or the frequency adapted to reflect individual risks from vibration. This supports a more predict and prevent strategy instead of reacting after occupational health screening confirms problems.
The HSE state “Effective maintenance can make big differences to vibration levels. Loose or worn parts of tools and plant create extra vibration. Blunt, damaged or inefficient tools have increased vibration and also mean tasks can take longer, increasing exposure levels”. Taking advantage of the HAVwear’s unique ability to assess tool vibration in the field, the HAVwear data can highlight poor performing tools or operator tool use.
Also comparing assets to select the lowest vibration tools for a job is made simpler and if the value of a tool’s vibration magnitude needs to be revised to be more representative in the field.
Alerts can be sent to any specified recipients when operators breach an action threshold to support proactive HAVS Management. A more rapid intervention by team leaders or managers to address issues, supports a proactive intervention unlike paper-based monitoring which may only be assessed each month or quarterly.
The Reactec Analytics exposure reports are automatically created and shared with specified employees. With a clearer understanding of the source and levels of HAV exposure; related working practises and tool utilisation; the Reactec Analytics provides insight to enable employers to prioritise and implement control measures.
Easy to understand reports empower employers to;
- Prioritise risk management
- Design and record controls and interventions
- Review controls and assess effectiveness The Reactec Analytics data can inform decisions on;
- Alternative work methods
- Equipment selection
- Maintenance & purchasing policy
- Work schedules
- Measure effectiveness of controls
CASE STUDY
Morgan Sindall – BBMV Cross rail project
C510 & C512 Whitechapel/Liverpool Street Tunnels Crossrail The senior management team led by Paul Gott (MD Morgan Sindall Tunnels) and Selby Thacker (Operations Director Morgan Sindall) along with the Health & Safety and project team recognised that a paper based system currently deployed was labour intensive, provided insufficient visibility to understand the scale of worker welfare issues and fundamentally did not provide adequate management information to support risk reduction.
The issues faced by the leadership team were:
- Lack of operator awareness of HAV risks
- Questionable vibration exposure records from operator declared estimates of tool usage
- No simple way to collate or interrogate exposure data
- Lack of credible data to help reduce and limit exposure
- No robust defence to employee HAVS litigation
- Basic at best compliance to the Vibration Directive 2005
Along with deploying the Reactec system, an extensive programme of toolbox talks specifically relating to hand arm vibration syndrome were delivered to all on tool employees.
Toolbox talks were centred around the damage that constant or over exposure to vibrating tools could do to an individual and the impact on their personal and professional lives.
Further training to line managers on how to access the data, how to interpret the data and how that would deliver a safer working environment were delivered in a combination of site visits and WebEx training sessions with on-going field support from Reactec and Morgan Sindall/BBMV management.
Conclusions
Greater operator awareness of HAV risks
All users of vibratory tools understand what HAVS is and the impact it can have on their health, their private and professional lives. As a result, the operators have engaged with the technology especially the wearable HAVwear as it has become personal. Each device informs the operator of points being accumulated so they are able to take informed decisions about tool rotation through their work team. Also select lower vibratory tools or inform supervisors of impending or breached exposure threshold limits and supporting the message, it’s about them being 100% safe.
Improved vibration exposure records from operator declared estimates of tool usage
Digital monitoring ensures accurate and consistent measurement and removes the guess work on operator trigger time. It also identifies which tools cause vibration and critically measures the outcomes of control measures put in place by the management team, e.g., have the control measures reduced vibration exposure and can the control be expanded through the workforce? In addition, the HAVwear’s ability to sense the vibration impact on the individual opens a new way of assessing the true, experienced risk which is not subject to the uncertainty of tool vibration levels based on expected tool performance programmed in the tool tag.
Improved data collection and review
Paper based monitoring or surveillance relied on operators giving an assessment of time on tool and was often confused with how hard you are working as opposed to how much trigger time. Identifying the tool used with the vibration magnitude and then calculating points accumulated became cumbersome. Collating the data took significant resource and kept safety advisors in an office and not on site.
The Reactec Analytics Platform collects data automatically and presents the data in a user-friendly format with automatic reports and alerts to flag issues and allow control measure to be monitored for effectiveness.
More credible data to help reduce and limit exposure
Morgan Sindall/BBMV identified tool rotation within work groups were not happening. As part of the wider education programme team leaders were given access to the Reactec reports to enable safety briefs to include performance on managing HAVS, engendering ownership and personal responsibility within the operating teams.
Less exposure to litigation
Whilst the primary objective is to keep employees and sub-contractors 100% safe when delivering on time contracts there is an increase in employee litigation activity throughout the industry.
The Crossrail project in London, UK demanded the use of high vibratory tools, which if not managed correctly, the business or client could experience litigation for a HAVS claim or HSE improvement notices.
The Reactec Analytics Platform delivers an auditable, tamper proof system that shows each and every operator’s exposure.
This data can be recalled at any time either from the platform or the archive to show an operator’s total exposure history.
This would be irrefutable evidence more robustly protecting both the business and the client.
Basic at best compliance to the Vibration Directive 2005
Deploying Reactec’s system is recognition that following only guidance to the directive is not enough. For example, using a paper-based system helped to comply with guidance and regulations but the information collected was weak and did not support the essence of the directive for continuous reduction.
Continuous digital monitoring goes beyond the directive guidance and establishes a useable management tool to raise awareness, educate tool users and better support risk reduction.
