Abstract
In view of legislation, including European Community Directives and Health and Safety Guidance Notes, companies with vibration exposed workforce require to have a policy to meet these demands.
It is important to have a clear order of priorities when instituting such a policy. The introduction of medical surveillance should not be the first action.
A written policy should include several sections. These are:- identification and assessment of the hazard, steps which can be taken to obviate or mitigate the risk, creation of awareness of this risk and finally medical surveillance of exposed workers to monitor the effectiveness of the policy.
Each of these sections is examined. The Stockholm Classification is discussed and the use of objective tests, to aid accurate staging of employees with symptoms, is considered in detail.
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