Twenty-nine grounds maintenance workers at Wirral Council have been diagnosed as suffering from the effects of Hand Arm Vibration syndrome.
The workers routinely used vibrating power tools in their work, for cutting and strimming grass, hedges and trees.
The council has now been prosecuted and fined for failing to manage the risk and for not restricting hours worked with vibrating tools.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council after 29 workers in the parks and leisure department were affected by Hand Arm Vibration (HAV) syndrome between July 2005 and December 2009.
One of the workers, Nick Bower, began noticing problems with his hands after several years working as head greenkeeper at Hoylake Golf Course, where he regularly worked with strimmers and mowers. The 47-year-old was diagnosed with the syndrome in 2009, and suffers dexterity problems and intense pain in his hands during cold weather.
Mr Bower has since changed jobs and is now undertaking other duties for the authority that do not involve working with vibrating machinery. He is on permanent medication to help with blood flow to his hands and nerve damage.
Source The Construction Index: continue reading Strimmers and mowers leave council workers suffering from HAV syndrome
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Its about time this council invested in some pellenc tools - lower vibs, no emissions, much lower noise levels and reduced weight = happy & productive workers.
Head Greenkeeper....should not he be one of those managing the risk.
Wirral is posh Liverpool, wonder what Boris would have to say about this.
I sufferd the same for a year or so about 8 years ago, it completly healed after 6 month of not using gardening tools .
I think that there so many things that can improved in the landscape so the use of these tools can be reduced.
Should be planting less hedges and if so ones that needs less cuttings ( slow growing plants) . lawn edgesneed to be edged with lawn edging thatcan reduce the edging job in 60-80% per year every year.
there are swippers to collect leaves instead of blow airs .
Designers and planners should give attention to these and create these changes
29 is quite a lot all from one council...... sorry to sound cynical but I wonder how many jumped on the bandwagon when they thought there was some easy money to be made.I've observed, most councils seem to use good quality Stihl equipment where the manufacturers try and reduce vibration as much as practical for petrol powered machinery. Unfortunately, I understand vibration syndrome is a difficult one to prove and it must be tricky to differentiate the genuine claimants from the fraudsters. As Ofer says, the only solution to the problem is to take operatives off the job as soon as they start displaying symptoms..... as this is often a fundamental part of the job, I'd imagine things becoming very tricky..... do you recruit on a short term contract and not renew if problems occur? Can new recruits sign a disclaimer for if problems arise?.... not sure if thats legal!!
Some useful info we have on file on HAVs
I had a very interesting adventure when i worked in 1997 in a kibutz in israel doing gardening maintenance and development. The head gardener Jeremy had his own very special approach , as they had a very limited budget yet the gardens were very large ( the whole place is like one big garden, few neighborhoods surrounded with lawns trees and plants).
Jeremy approach was to change it all to be easier to maintain, so we pulled out with chain and tractor many of the hedges, we planted many junipers and other easy care ground covers.
we used a lot loppers and not at all strimmers no hedge cutters and no blow airs -
I remember it as really fun and quiet gardening.
years later when i run my own firm - i had to use these tools in gardens , but when i planned gardens myself i tried to plan them to be easy care, with slow growing plants.
the problem with these tools , is when you do it as full time job it is not healthy for many other things as hearing, HAV, heart and lungs that is for the user but it is also bother other people with the high noise....
does anyone got far better experience using electric tools?
If you have HAVS or reynauds disease geoff you would know that it is very easy to identify : your hands go white, puffy , spotted. you cant write properly ( that maybe carper-tunnel) or deupitrons contracture , but all 3 are related . A specialist confirmed i had it 2-3 years ago and it is a registered disease for disability. i hope you never get it ... prolonged use and not knowing about vibrations, circulation, anti-vibe gloves causes it to be worse.
i should be on nifedipine tablets twice a day-every day as losartan gave me a bad stomach...
these calcium channel blockers change the 'white blood cells' that are damaged. i stopped taking them very soon after being diagnosed as i hate dependancy on pharmaceuticals; good days bad days, stopping drinking, especially smoking, washing hot dishes & drinking nettle tea helps and exercise...
Geoff Norfolk said:
My brother got whitefinger (seems to now be called HAV), working with chainsaws for the council tree team in Brighton in the eighties.
He has got considerable circulation problems (exacerbated by smoking)
I too have a tendency to white fingers, probably more likely Reynauds Syndrome, which affects 10% of women.
I do not like using strimmers etc and keep this side of gardening to a minimum.
In the winter, keeping moving is the solution to the cold while gardening.
One other thing that has helped my circulation is doing Buteyko breathing. http://learnbuteyko.co.uk/
This is one way of avoiding taking pharmaceutical drugs (I don't like either, mentioned above by Gardens 4 U).
The breathing tecnique has to be done 15 x 4 times a day for a year or so, by which time you may be able to come off drugs you are taking. This is too hard for many people, but worth it if you can stick it.
It helps all things to do with circulation and organs not working properly from bad circulation , breathing, middle age diseases likehigh blood pressure, etc.
Better circulation to my hands was an added bonus on top of sorting out the thyroid problems I had. I now don't take thyroxine because of Buteyko.
If you do a 15 min Buteyko breathing exercise, the circulation is immediately improved. You health is improved as soon as you start doing Butetko.
Of course gardeners and lanscapers are much healthier than most people.
You're quite right there and I was wrong. After seeing some pictures of HAV I realise you'd have trouble faking it.... didn't realise how white it made the hand go. used to get it on the ends of my fingers years ago if I rode an old british motorbike for more than a few hours non-stop!!.
Gardens4u.co.uk said:
I wondered what on earth it was , when i took a 4pint of cold milk out of the fridge and my right hand went white, puffy for 1 min to make a cup of tea. i showed my lodger at the time and he said i'd go to the doctors, ! - i thought nothing of it whatsoever...
sometimes i could not even write properly.
i also noticed i could not pick up coins from off the work surface (VERY STRANGE ;) for me )..
also i could not do the buttons up on my jeans/ fly...
when i went in a small boat by the shore with bare legs the cold areas went white puffy and /water splashes by my inside knee area went white spots on red legs.
other 'triggers' make it occur......
i bought new stihl back-pack strimmer asap to relieve fatigue/ direct vibrations & a back-pack blower.
both were beneficial... pro-guard also made me aware about my hs45 hedgetrimmer - i got a 81r soon enough and i could 'feel' the vibration difference as he said..
i also bought anti-vibe gloves from screwfix : Ergodyne..