This pilot study is a first attempt to translate occupational whole body vibration (WBV) exposures into a laboratory setting to better understand the biomechanical loading on the spine that may be associated with WBV‐related low back pain and injury. WBV exposures experienced by bus drivers were recorded from a low‐floor city bus when driving across two distinct road types – one profile was a continuous, low‐amplitude exposure (representative of freeway driving) and the other an intermittent, impulsive, high‐amplitude exposure (induced by raised freeway expansion joints). The exposure signals were processed to extract vibration signatures (amplitude and frequency). Then, 6 human cadaver spinal segments were exposed to one of the two exposure profiles. A novel staining technique was used to explore disc degradation resulting from the two different exposure profiles. None of the specimens exposed to the continuous, low‐amplitude exposure profile demonstrated any visible damage to the intervertebral disc whereas all three of the specimens exposed to the intermittent, impulsive exposure profile demonstrated at least some signs of damage.