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OCCUPATIONAL VIBRATION EXPOSURE
Book chapter

OCCUPATIONAL VIBRATION EXPOSURE

David G Wilder and Donald E Wasserman
Physical and Biological Hazards of the Workplace, pp.53-71
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
12/16/2016
DOI: 10.1002/9781119276531.ch4

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Abstract

When vibration interacts with the human body, the coupling pathway in which it moves through the body defines its path of travel. Whole‐body vibration (WBV) affects the entire body and is usually transmitted in a sitting or standing position from a vibrating seat or platform. Segmental or hand–arm vibration (HAV) affects one or both upper extremities and is usually transmitted to the hand and arm only from a motorized hand tool. This chapter discusses soft tissue responses to impact/vibration, and bony responses in the spine. Low back pain is a common nonoccupational health problem, and workers who are exposed to WBV are also exposed to many other workplace hazards, making it difficult to sort out the cause of symptoms. The intervertebral motion segment can be considered a flexible short column, susceptible to buckling, especially if its disk has been compromised by injury, fatigue, degenerative processes, thereby decreasing the size of its effective base of support.
bony responses erector spinae hand–arm vibration intervertebral motion low back pain occupational vibration exposure soft tissue responses vertebral buckling instability whole‐body vibration workplace hazards

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