Angela Chouaib on how one UK contractor reduced exposure to hand arm vibration.
The HAV debate driven by the Health and Safety Executive, leading contractors, equipment suppliers and rental providers has seen major changes in tool design and operating practices to minimize damage to the health of operatives. Hire companies have had to bear a big responsibility to drive the campaign, updating rental fleets with low vibration equipment and creating initiatives to learn about the HAV facts
But it’s actually working with tools on-site where the issues surrounding hand arm vibration remains a kind of dark art or a nightmare of calculations. The accusation still holds; it is difficult to understand, difficult to communicate, difficult to monitor and difficult to implement.
Many key contractors have put considerable effort into HAV and one particular contractor BAM Nuttall saw an opportunity to assess and manage HAV at a construction project in Kent. Using the latest compact HAVi device, BAM Nuttall product tested the HAVI system for hand-arm vibration management.
The civil engineering project at a waste water treatment works in Lenham, Kent comprised multiple construction tasks, a variety of tools and more than 15 operatives and staff. Here they would trial test the HAVi for more than three months and assess the results
BAM Nuttall Site Agent Nick Howard actively involved operatives in the process including training on HAV and contracted with tool rental provider GAP Group for the supply of a wide diversity of tools and machines. The project proved an ideal scenario to test out the HAVi system.
Nick explained, “Hand arm vibration was one area of health and safety management that BAM Nuttall focused on. We made a decision to look into HAV in a real time situation and if HAVi was to deliver for us then we had a simple working solution for the entire company.
HAVi is a very simple compact piece of kit and operatives easily understood how it worked and adopted it.”
Using as many as 15 HAVi units on site as tools were brought in on hire, HAVi units were set up for each individual tool. All operatives had to do was simply observe the points and be fully aware that the danger limit of 400 points a day is a maximum, pocket size counter books recorded a daily tally. No complicated training, just a quick set up and get on with the job at hand.
“What the HAVI did immediately was get operators on board; they could understand how it worked and what it was measuring” said Nick.
Andy Mee, Technical Sales Manager, for HAVi visited site and set up the project, including training key personnel on how to use a HAVi on different machines. For 2- 3 months BAM Nuttall observed, monitored and got to grips with HAVi.
The majority of tools fell within safe working limits. But one clear observation was that some tools regarded as low risk tools can have a major HAV issue depending on usage time. A lightweight impact tool can do as much damage as heavier high impact tools
The HAVi highlighted some surprising results and allowed both management and operatives to observe and learn about a variety of tools and to take this forward on to other sites
Another element was that the HAVi relies on manufacturers and hire companies providing in use vibration magnitude measurements which are often the results from bench testing. National rental company, GAP Group utilises the traffic light tool tag system to provide the correct data to set up tools.
Not all rental companies are actively providing HAV data, which is surprising given it is a recommended requirement of tool hire. The OPERC HAVTEC database provides details for the majority of plant and equipment to help in the election of the most appropriate tools.
After two months trial with BAM Nuttall the HAVi has provided clear guidelines for managing the HAV risks on site. Overall the impact of trialling HAVi has been a success and immediately identified the low and high risk areas, highlighting problem vibratory tools and methods. High risk areas meant tools could be assessed for performance and operatives could be rotated to share the risk and at the same time BAM Nuttall assessed measures to change to more suitable tools or techniques.
The system minimizes risk by not allowing operatives to exceed the maximum dosage points, it does not wait until the results are logged and recorded to highlight that actually the damage has been done.
Steve Cluer General Manager BAM Nuttall Ltd said “HAVi helped BAM Nuttall focus our efforts where they needed to be so we could monitor and manage HAV in the workplace. Following further assessment I am confident it will become a benchmark for good practice across the company.
Having been exposed to this initial field testing HAVi has demonstrated to be robust at withstanding typical site wear and tear. Staff have bought-in to the system and it definitely places an important part of working safely back into the hands of operatives.“
For further information, please contact Angela at Riverside Environmental Services Ltd on Tel: (UK) 0870 950 0161. To see the HAVi unit in operation, see the video below:
