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Hand-arm Vibration Exposure in Warm Climates: Promoting Awareness of Health Effects and Controls to Employees, Management and Contractors

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Abstract

Hand-arm vibration exposure is most commonly acknowledged as a major contributor to the presence of vibration white finger in workers in cool to cold climatic regions. In warmer climatic regions without the cold to trigger the onset of an attack, hand-arm vibration syndrome is often overlooked and, as such, is suspected to be underdiagnosed in these areas. By engaging employees in activities such as awareness training, health surveys and monitoring and measuring activities for exposure times, vibration severity of tooling and effectiveness of anti-vibration gloves, management can demonstrate commitment to ensuring employee health and employees take ownership of the issues and their resolution. Summarised professionally and supported with other data such as costs involved with workers’ health claims, rehabilitation, re-training, back-filling of roles and the like, management can appreciate the full extent of the problem and see that being pro-active about reducing exposure can be good for business. Contractors can also be brought on the journey by including their tools in the assessment programme, assisting them to measure their exposure time and supporting them with expert resources to provide awareness training and health surveys.

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  1. PO Box 235, Gladstone, 4680, Australia

    Rebecca Devine

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  1. Rebecca Devine
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Correspondence to Rebecca Devine.

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Devine, R. Hand-arm Vibration Exposure in Warm Climates: Promoting Awareness of Health Effects and Controls to Employees, Management and Contractors. Acoust Aust 44, 107–112 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40857-015-0033-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40857-015-0033-4

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