Incidence of Raynaud's phenomenon in relation to hand-arm vibration exposure among male workers at an engineering plant a cohort study

Hagberg, Mats; Burström, Lage; Lundström, Ronnie; Nilsson, Tohr

Affiliations

¹Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

²Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the incidence of Raynaud's phenomenon in relation to hand-arm vibration exposure in a cohort consisting of male office and manual workers.

Methods: The baseline population consisted of 94 office and 147 manual workers at an engineering plant. Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) was assessed at baseline and at follow up (at 5, 10 and 15 years). A retrospective and a prospective cohort analysis of data were done. Hand-arm vibration exposure dose was defined as the product of exposure duration and the weighted hand-arm vibration exposure value according to ISO 5349-1.

Results: The retrospective/prospective incidence of Raynaud's phenomenon was 16/14 per 1000 exposure years among exposed and 2.4/5.0 per 1000 years among the not exposed. The retrospective dose response curve based on 4 dose classes showed that class 2, 3 and 4 had similar response and showed higher incidence than the not-exposed. The dose with RP response to hand-arm vibration corresponded to a 10 year A(8) value between 0.4–1.0 m/s².

Conclusion: The results indicate that the EU directive on an action value for hand-arm vibration of 2.5 m/s² is not too low. Rather, it suggests that employers should take on actions even at exposure values of 1 m/s²A(8).

Links

DOI: 10.1186/1745-6673-3-13

PubMed: 18558009

PubMedCentral: PMC2442108

History

Received: 2008-02-05

Accepted: 2008-08-06-16

Online: 2008-08-06-16

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Cited By (7)

Year	Entry
2019	Goggins KA, Tarabini M, Lievers WB, Eger TR. Biomechanical response of the human foot when standing in a natural position while exposed to vertical vibration from 10–200 Hz. Ergonomics. May 2019;6(5):644-656.
2019	Chadefaux D, Gueguen N, Thouze A, Rao G. 3D propagation of the shock-induced vibrations through the whole lower-limb during running. J Biomech. November 11, 2019;96:109343.
2016	Goggins K, Godwin A, Lariviere C, Eger T. Study of the biodynamic response of the foot to vibration exposure. Occup Ergon. 2016;13(1):53-66.
2013	Goggins KA. Foot-Transmitted Vibration: Exposure Characteristics and the Biodynamic Response of the Foot [Master's thesis]. Sudbury, Ontario: Laurentian University; 2013.
2016	Byrnell HK. Personal Protective Equipment as a Control Strategy to Reduce Foot-Transmitted Vibration [Master's thesis]. Sudbury, ON: Laurentian University; 2016.
2019	Goggins KA. Measuring and Modelling Human Response to Foot-Transmitted Vibration Exposure [PhD thesis]. Sudbury, ON: Laurentian University; 2019.
2019	Maugeri S. Modelling the Response of the Human Feet to Vertical Whole-Body Vibration [Master's thesis]. Lecco, Italy: Politecnico Di Milano; 2019.