Common Causes of Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome
A condition called hand-arm vibration syndrome can affect people who have regularly used vibrating tools and machinery over a period of around 10 years or more. Such tools include pneumatic drills, power drills and chainsaws.
Symptoms of Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome
The early symptoms are loss of feeling, numbness and pins and needles in the fingers. Symptoms can often be mild, and just affect the ends of the fingers. It might cause whole fingers to go numb. For some people this can make tasks such as doing up buttons and picking up small objects like coins difficult. It’s thought that it could be caused by repeated minor injuries to the small nerves and blood vessels in the fingers. Hand-arm vibration syndrome can lead to another condition called Raynaud’s phenomenon.
If you think you have symptoms of hand-arm vibration syndrome, see a doctor and report it to your manager if you think it’s being caused by something you do at work. You might need to stop using vibrating tools and machinery to stop your condition getting worse.
