Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
- Job 4:12-14
Vibration is the repetitive, periodic, or oscillatory response of a mechanical system (De Silva, 2006). Vibration can occur naturally, such as in speech, where mechanical agitation of the air between speaker and listener in a pattern allows the listener to hear words. Vibration can be produced as a result of the design of a system, such as when an electric toothbrush pulsates and oscillates as it brushes a person’s teeth (Adam et. al., 2020). Vibration can be produced as a byproduct of the design of a system, such as where the running of an engine makes the cab of a truck or the seat of a ride-on mower shake. Sometimes, this vibration is unwanted, such as when doing fine work like precise drilling or finishing, and so needs to be minimised. Vibration is a mechanical force, and arises from mechanical antecedents - the agitation of air from the tension of the vocal cords, the vibration of a toothbrush motor, and the rattling of a mower are all the results of the use of another system. Mechanical vibration is transmitted through the air, through water, and through solid objects like walls, seats and flooring - anyone who’s felt a station platform rumble as a train arrives has experienced this. Where the vibration experienced by a person, either in a segment of their body or through their whole body, is significant in the short term or prolonged over time, vibration can cause health issues (Groothoff, 2012). Workers of all ages and of all occupations are exposed to doses of vibration: drivers experience vibration through the seats of their cars, construction workers experience vibration through their tools, manufacturing workers experience vibration through their feet and from their machinery, and even technical service workers are exposed to vibrations where they use machines like bulk laminators and presses.
Workers can experience vibration to their whole bodies or large proportions of the body where the exposed area is immersed in a vibrating medium like water or air (Whole-Body Vibration [WBV]). Vibrations can be transmitted to the body via supporting surfaces, and can be restricted or intensified within those parts of the body that they affect, like hands holding tools (Hand-Transmitted Vibration [HTV]). Vibration exposure can be divided into two broad categories - whole-body vibration and segmental vibration. Both whole-body vibration and segmental vibration are experienced by the worker in doses, where the dose is the intensity of the exposure over a short or sustained period of time, which may be repeated multiple times in one shift or across shifts. This is important to remember, as the accumulative effects of vibration exposure on a person may not become apparent immediately unless the dose of mechanical vibration energy is significant. More often, it takes time for a relationship between vibration exposure and physical symptoms to arise after controlling for demographic factors (Lings & Leboeuf-Yde, 2000; Tiemessen et. al., 2008; Bovenzi et. al., 2017). Exposure to mechanical vibration is not limited to the workplace, and exposure to mechanical vibration in the workplace itself exists among an ecosystem of other factors such as manual handling exposure, postural risk, and other musculoskeletal strain (Palmer et. al., 2001; Palmer et. al., 2003). Non-occupational tools like electric knives, mixers, shakers, and drills also expose a person to vibration, so the relationship between occupational vibration exposure and illness is less clear-cut. This is also confounded by the fact that there are no gold-standard tests for injuries arising from vibration such as hand-arm-vibration syndrome (Falkiner, 2003), the fact that some conditions that may be made worse by vibration exposure like Raynaud’s Disease can arise from non-occupational causes (Temprano, 2016), and the fact that engineering design controls are typically used as a first option of managing vibration exposure (Mansfield, 2004; Crocker, 2007).
In spite of this, the effects of vibration on the human body are well-understood, including pain in the hands, fingers, elbows, shoulders, and back, (Issever et. al., 2003). Lower back pain, fatigue and irritation, motion sickness and balance issues, and changes in blood pressure are all commonly understood consequences of excessive exposure to vibration. Occupational exposure to whole-body vibration has been suspected to increase risks of pregnancy complications and gestational diabetes (Skröder et. al., 2020). The effects of vibration on the human body vary based on the characteristics of the worker - age, gender, and body composition interact with occupational exposures to produce varied risk profiles (Krajnak, 2018) Safe Work Australia, 2010). In spite of this, the most common conditions that may arise from vibration exposure include vibration-induced white finger, which is a form of Raynaud’s Disease; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, muscular and joint pain in the arms and hands, and neurological changes in the arms and hands specifically when considering the upper limbs. When considering the whole body, vibration exposure is most strongly associated with lower back pain (Seidel & Heide, 1986), and more weakly associated with disorders of the the spinal nerves (Seidel & Heide, 1986), the neck and shoulder (Charles et. al., 2018), and the balance system of the inner ears and the skull (Griffin, 2006). Of the 2010 study, of the workers exposed, 24% of workers were found to be exposed to vibration in the workplace. Despite this, in the analysis, only 400 injury claims related directly to vibration. It may be due to the lack of clarity of the relationship between source and symptoms, and non-occupational factors of consideration.
Figure 1
Conceptual illustration of the factors influencing the cause effect relationships for HAV
Note. Adapted from Griffin, M J 1990 Handbook of Human Vibration, Academic Press
Australian workers’ compensation statistics show that workers in the 35-44 years and 45-54 years age groups had the highest incidence rates of vibration related compensation claims, which may be due to the long latency of vibration related injury and illness (SWA, 2010). Younger workers were more likely to report exposure to vibration, but in spite of this increased reporting rate, the high proportion of compensation claims where the mechanism of injury or disease is vibration are sprains and strains of joints and adjacent muscles. This means that vibration as a root cause may be underinvestigated. Further, workers may not claim compensation for vibration related injuries. The workers most likely to experience vibration exposure are young male workers, who typically work within the manufacturing and construction sectors. Unsurprisingly, owing to demographic representation and exposure to force, these sectors were four-times more likely to report vibration exposures. The occupations that reported the highest exposure were machinery operators, drivers, trade and labour workers in mining, construction, transport, agriculture and forestry. Notably, these are all industries where workers regularly use hand-operated, mounted, or otherwise powered tools in the course of their work, and who interact with powered plant including construction equipment, earthmovers, lifters, and heavy machinery (Gerhardsson et. al., 2021). When considering hand-held power tools, such as drills, saws, sanders, and blowers, variance in vibration produced from their use may differ between operators due to sharpness of cutting edges, bit selection, tool selection for tasks, and tool manufacturing tolerances (Gerhardsson et. al., 2020; Edwards & Holt, 2006) as shown below
Figure 2
Examples of vibration magnitude for some common tools
Note. Adapted from EU-OSHA 2008 Workplace exposure to vibration in Europe – an expert review, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
This risk profile may change with worker age, fitness, and BMI (Lawson, 2020). In spite of this variability, increased exposure to vibration may increase the risk of development of ulnar nerve entrapment, carpal tunnel, and trigger-finger in tool-using dominant hands (Zimmerman et. al., 2024). Again, this risk profile changes given the diverse range of occupational tasks, durations, tool use, and postures adopted by workers in their job roles (Kittusamy & Buchholz, 2004). Outside of tool use, drivers of powered plant are at increased risk of lower back pain, owing to a combination of sedentary posture while driving combined with vibration exposure through the seat pan, backrest, and pedals (Bovenzi, 2010), alongside other occupational postures such as bending, reaching, and twisting (Hoy et. al., 2005). It is also necessary to consider manual handling that may be undertaken as part of the role (Hagberg et. al., 2006; Okunribido et. al., 2008) and depending on the equipment used which may expose workers to vibration of greater or lesser immediate or sustained intensity (Moraes et. al., 2016), as shown below in figure
Figure 3
Examples of vibration magnitude for some common mobile machines
Note. Adapted from EU-OSHA 2008 Workplace exposure to vibration in Europe – an expert review, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
Vibration is mechanical force produced from the movement of an object, which itself results from application of energy through or to that object. Where there is energy exchange, transmission, contact, or transduction, there is the potential for vibration to develop, and in excessive, sustained, and repeated doses, this development may pose health risks.
The Safe Work Australia N.H.E.W.S. Survey (2010) noted that 22% of those workers who reported being exposed to occupational vibration reported that they were not provided with vibration-mitigating controls. The most commonly used control were PPE in the form of gloves. The selection of tools that produced less vibration, vibration mitigating seats, and vibration dampeners were also used. Only twenty-seven percent of the surveyed workers reported that they were provided with training on how to assess and prevent the health problems caused by vibration (SWA, 2010). This is notable, given the difficulty with which vibration-related injuries may be diagnosed, the latency time, and the variability of factors and vulnerabilities that may give rise to vibration-induced injuries. Vibration controls are commonly assumed to be implemented in the design phase of the product (Brennan & Ferguson, 2018). Smaller workplaces are also less likely than larger workplaces to provide control measures and PPE and vibration exposure, and this likelihood is also lower where vibration is not an assessed workplace hazard. To this end, comprehensive hazard, tool, and task assessment may be useful in charting the ecosystem of risk in a workplace and proactively developing controls to minimise the risk of adverse events. Additionally, risk and hazard education for workers may be effective in preparing workers to deal with vibration exposure among other occupational hazards where, for early detection of deleterious health effects, education as well as health surveillance may be useful as part of a general health promotion strategy. The fact that only 27% of workers surveyed reported vibration safety training may suggest a lack of awareness and knowledge regarding these kinds of risk, and that this training be specifically directed at workplaces where vibration exposure is more common. Management of vibration risk may be undertaken based on action limits, or more proactively and outside of an actual exposure limitation through elimination in line with EU Directive 2002/44/EC as shown below
Figure 4
Obligations for employers according to the EU Directive 2002/44/EC
Note. Adapted from Mansfield, N.J.(2005), "The European vibration Directive - How will it affect the dental profession?". British Dental Journal, 199(9): 575-577.
Due to the lack of a clear method specifically related to workplace factors and back pain, general health monitoring is more appropriate than formal health surveillance (Health and Safety Executive, 2011). The approach to such monitoring is essentially the same as for manual handing, using a combination of employee consultation, encouraging proactive reporting, using regular health surveillance alongside body injury charting and injury / stress questionnaires, and having employees participate in the design and implementation of control measures. These interventions should ideally be targeted at priority industries where vibration exposure is most profound (SWA, 2012), ideally with due consideration of epidemiological factors which may predispose workers to developing vibration-related injuries (Magnusson et. al., 1998). The control of workplace vibration is the control of energy direction and transmission in occupational settings for occupational ends, and ensuring that that energy accomplishes its task with a maximal efficiency and minimal misdirection into the body of a worker. Information, Training, Instruction and Support in combination with safety checklists have been identified as effective vibration risk mitigation strategies by Safe Work Australia (2016). This is best provided within a broader ecosystem of control addressing manufacture of plant at the design stage (SWA, 2014a; SWA 2014b) to ensure that vibration sources are comprehensively mitigated.
Human societal, communal, and economic advancement throughout history has been due to the development and refinement of tools and industrial processes, through which the control our species has over the natural world around us has increased. Through industrial, occupational, and scientific effort, we are able to harness and direct forces beyond those that would normally be produced by our anatomies. Impact hammers can chisel stone that would shatter the knuckles of the hand if struck. Forklifts can carry loads that would crumple the bones of the spine. Trucks, lorries, and graders can reshape the landscape more really and vividly than stories of epic myth and legend. Through all of this, the engagement of energy from combustion chambers, reciprocating drives, drill motors and instruments of all make, model, and manufacture allows incredible feats of engineering. Through all of this, it is the worker who wields these forces, in the handles of drills, in the triggers of impact wrenches, in the steering wheels and drives of drillers, diggers, and tractors - it is the worker, whose hands, arms, and bodies contend with the interface between man, force, and the reification of the impossible possibility that comes when those things meet the substrate of our world. Where that interface exists, there is risk, and where risk exists, there must also be control. It is incumbent on workplaces, employers, and industry to design safety at the planning phase, to most appropriately control the risks to workers, customers, and the general public, whose lives, dreams, and bodies exist in the world hewn from the possibility around us.
None of this information constitutes medical, legal, occupational health and safety, best guidance, standard, or other guidance, instruction, or prescription.
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