Vibration-induced white finger in dockyard employees

Abstract

Vibration-induced white finger (VWF) is a vascular condition associated with occupational exposure to hand-transmitted vibration. The fingers are prone to intermittent blanching attacks which may be triggered by cold conditions and are usually accompanied by numbness and tingling or pain. VWF has been associated with the use of various tools and processes, among which are the percussive and rotary metal-working tools used in ship repair work. This thesis describes a study of dose-effect relationships for VWF in dockyard employees.

A review of the literature revealed more than 40 epidemiological studies of VWF in workers using hand-held metal-working tools. Measurements of tool vibration have also been reported, but few researchers have combined epidemiological studies of VWF with measurements of the vibration exposures Involved. Some dose-effect relationships have been suggested and current standards contain tentative dose effect guidance. Some recent authors have suggested that the frequency weighting and time-dependencies assumed In current standards are inadequate.

Methods for the measurement of hand-transmitted vibration were assessed. The vibration characteristics of sixteen pneumatic tools commonly used in dockyard work were measured in the laboratory. Repeated measurements were made In three axes at each hand position and analysis included the computation of narrow-band spectra, acceleration magnitudes in octave bands and overall frequency-weighted and unweighted acceleration magnitudes.

A survey of vibration-exposed employees in a dockyard was conducted by questionnaire. Information related to symptoms of VWF, and the history of use of vibrating tools was obtained from each individual. The severity of blanching in each affected individual was recorded using a scoring system.

The severity and prevalence of symptoms were related to various measures of vibration 'dose' (i.e. combinations of measured vibration magnitudes and reported exposure times) by logistic regression and survival analysis. A highly significant relationship between VWF severity and exposure time was demonstrated. However, the use of frequency-weighted acceleration in dose calculations reduced the goodness of fit, while unweighted acceleration gave a small improvement in some cases. This suggests that higher frequencies in the range 6.3 Hz to 1250 Hz are of greater Importance than current standards imply. The effect of vibration magnitude was found to be small compared with that of exposure time and no clear effect of vibration direction or vibration frequency was demonstrated.

No evidence was found for a time-dependency of the form assumed in current standards. It is possible that the risk of VWF may not be directly related to the vibration magnitude, but that a 'threshold' magnitude exists, below which the hazard is small and above which it is proportional to a function of the exposure time. Further Investigation of this hypothesis is recommended.

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ORCID for M.J. Griffin: orcid.org/0000-0003-0743-9502

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