Hand-arm vibration toolbox talk

The point

Breakers, grinders, hammer drills, cut-off saws, sanders - the kit that shakes in your hands all day. Enough hours of that and it destroys the feeling in your fingers, for good. It is completely preventable, so we take five minutes on it.

The hazard, in plain terms

The shaking passes from the tool into your hands and arms, and the harm builds up slowly. It comes down to one thing: how much time your hands spend on a running tool. Time on the tool is the dose.

The early signs are easy to shrug off. Tingling in your fingers. Numbness. Pins and needles that wake you at night. Fingertips going white in the cold and wet, then red and painful as they warm up. Dropping small stuff - screws, fittings - because you cannot feel them properly.

Here is the hard part. Catch it early and you can stop it getting worse. Keep going past the signs and the damage is permanent. Numb fingers that stay numb. A grip too weak to hold your tools, or a pint, or a fishing rod. It does not heal and it does not get better. The only fix is cutting the dose before the damage sets in.

What to do

• Ask first if the job needs hand-held kit at all. A breaker on the excavator beats a breaker in your hands every time.
• Use the lowest-vibration tool that will do the job, and the right tool. The wrong one takes longer, and longer is more dose.
• Keep discs, bits and blades sharp and fresh. Worn kit shakes more and cuts slower, so you are holding it longer for the same hole.
• Share the heavy tool work. Swap over, break it up, spread it across the day. Halving your time on the tool halves your dose.
• Keep your hands warm and dry. Gloves, dry kit, warm breaks - cold and wet is what sets off the white-finger attacks.
• Feel tingling, numbness, or fingertips going white? Tell me today, and say it at your health check. Early is when we can still do something.

What to never do

• Never count on "anti-vibration" gloves to save you. HSE is blunt about this: gloves are for warmth and grip - they do not protect you from vibration.
• Never push on with a blunt disc or a worn tool because swapping it is a faff. You pay for it in minutes on the trigger.
• Never sit on symptoms. Numb fingers are not part of the job - they are the last warning before the damage is permanent.

Questions to ask the crowd

The talk ends in a conversation. These are the ones that start it.

• "Which tool on this site leaves your hands buzzing longest after you put it down?"
• "Anyone ever had fingertips go white in the cold - here or on another job? What was the tool?"
• "What is one job this week we could split between two of us, or get off hand-held kit altogether?"