Injuries caused by industrial vibrating machinery

If you work in an industry where you use vibrating machinery often, you need to take steps to avoid injury, but if you are injured you'll also need to know who to talk to. Vibration white finger claims are mounting, and these can involve not only arm and hand vibration but whole body vibration, as well. You can get vibration white finger if you're in a job where you're exposed to frequent and regularly high levels of vibration. In some cases, this can lead to injuries that are permanent. You can tell quite easily if you have this because your fingertips will occasionally turn white. This usually happens when they are wet or cold. The symptoms are usually very mild when they first begin, but if you continue to work with vibrating tools or machinery a larger area can be affected. Fingers can also become numb during a vibration white finger injury attack and you may get the tingling, 'pins and needles' sensation similar to when your hand 'falls asleep' due to lack of blood flow. Near the end of one of these attacks the painful whiteness can turn deep red, which is much more uncomfortable.

There are two specific ways that people generally get this injury. One of them comes from whole-body vibration that comes through seats or platforms that are sat or stood on. The other way is through the operation of hand-held tools or the holding of machinery or materials that vibrate, such as holding things that are being machined. These kinds of jobs won't always cause harm, and there are some things which can affect this, such as how high the actual vibration is, how tightly you are gripping the object, how long the equipment or object is gripped and how frequently it is used, whether it is awkward to use the equipment or materials, and whether you get wet and/or cold when you use the equipment. Vibration white finger injuries can result in damage to the circulatory system, permanent nerve damage, muscle and bone damage, and damage to the joints. These can be avoided, but sometimes they occur before a person realizes that they might be at risk.

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This article was written on behalf of the Vibrating tool helpline offer compensation for sufferers of Vibration white finger and Raynuds disease