H.A.V. Exposure Monitoring

This is the most effective control measure

Removing the human from the source of harm entirely effectively removes the risk of harm from that activity.

For example, substituting a hand held breaker for a minidigger mounted breaker can be substituting hand arm vibration exposure with whole body vibration exposure

Effective, but offers mitigation instead of elimination

Substituting one item of equipment with another, less harmful or differingly harmful item of equipment

(L-R - Diamand core rig, Recoil dampening, isolated/damped handles),

is useful but less effective than eliminating the human from the entire process

Introducing mitigation processes and procedures like job rotation and health surveillance can be effective mitigators, but often the real working environment dilutes their impact.

Maintaining job rotation discipline when faced with productivity requirements and the most harmed employee is often the most proficient at the high exposure tasks.

Delegation of vibration exposure management to the employee imposing by self monitoring or manually recording data is a dereliction of the employers duty of care

Health surveillance is mandatory but when carried out annually, its effectiveness against a permanent condition that can be contracted within six months is questionable

......and last but not least

PPE requires a page all unto itself......