Hands are one of the most affected and vulnerable parts of the body and all work environments must provide the proper protective gear to ensure the hands of their workers are kept safe from most to all workplace injuries. But not all injuries come from accidents or from mishandling equipment.
Many workers who develop issues in their hands get it from using their tools repeatedly, even if they practice proper handling methods. Vibration from high-powered tools causes most hand injuries, so many work environments are looking to implement anti-vibration gloves in the PPE of their job site. But will anti-vibration gloves help and are they worth the investment?
What are anti-vibration gloves and how do they work?
As the name implies, anti-vibration gloves are gloves designed to minimize the amount of movement from high-powered automatic tools. It's quite spectacular that anti-vibration gloves exist now, and they should have been developed sooner since heavy construction work and tools that vibrated have existed since the turn of the 20th century.
For decades, workers had to deal with multiple health issues because of the unprotected use of jackhammers, drills, and even nail guns.
Anti-vibration gloves work by partially absorbing some of the tremors and vibrations into the gloves, so they do not reach the wearers hands. Extra layers for padding are added to the inside of the gloves, which prevents the worker from receiving the full vibrational strength of their tools.
Another way that they prevent vibrational injuries is by promoting blood flow to the hands. Constant vibration can restrict or even damage the small blood vessels in the hands, so promoting blood flow will keep the hands healthy and warm.
The third-way anti-vibration gloves protect a person's hands from injury, especially wrist injuries with a wrist stabilizer. They are also known as wrist splints. When a worker is using tools that have strong vibrations, they tend to bend their wrists in different positions that exacerbate injuries.
But anti-vibration gloves designed with wrist splints will keep their wrist from bending, which is better for blood flow and prevents pinched nerves.
But some job sites are slow to adopt the widespread use of anti-vibration gloves. Anti-vibration gloves are expensive and the job sites that do not want to implement them feel that it is not worth investing in gloves that only provide protection for one issue.
What do anti-vibration gloves protect against?
Anti-vibration gloves are designed to minimize the level of damage workers experience in their hands, as well as their forearms, elbows, and even shoulders when they use high-powered tools that vibrate for hours on end.
Because of the many small and delicate veins, muscle fibers, and bones, the structure of a human's hands is vulnerable to the long-term use of vibrational tools. One hand is not properly protected from vibrations for even just a few hours, workers will experience loss of sensation in their fingertips, hand stiffness, and elbow pain.
So, workers who regularly use tools such as drills or jackhammers will not use the tools occasionally, but plenty of time to recuperate.
Workers will use these tools daily and many do not wear the proper gloves designed to protect against long-term vibrational usage. They don't have anti-vibration gloves because their employer does not provide them. Another reason employers do not want to invest in anti-vibration gloves is because they do not protect against any other injury.
Most anti-vibration gloves are not made to be in weather or chemical proof, and these gloves must be fitted to the worker. Single issue gloves are not permanent solutions. The employee still must take breaks and switch off the power tool with another person, even if they're wearing gloves.
With this in mind, supervisors and managers would rather just allow their employees to take more frequent brakes, or ignore the issue completely, then invest in expensive anti-vibration gloves. But the promise of more breaks usually never comes, so workers have to fight for proper protection gloves.
What injuries will workers develop if they do not have anti-vibration gloves?
There are three common issues or workplace injuries that can develop within a worker's hands and forearms if they are not properly protected from the constant vibration of high-powered tools. These issues can affect the skeletal and muscular system or the blood flow in their veins. These three health issues are known as:
- White finger syndrome
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- and standard hand and arm vibration syndrome
As stated above, long-term use of high-powered vibrational tools can cause long-term damage to the ligaments and muscles, veins, and even bones of the user's hands.
White finger syndrome is one of the issues that will develop because of extensive brain damage. In this syndrome, blood vessels are damaged to the point where they no longer receive enough blood. The veins are too small and damaged for blood to easily pass through and their fingers will look white and lifeless because blood cannot get through.
Carpal tunnel is a widely known syndrome that can affect anybody that has to perform repetitive motions throughout the day. Retail workers, bartenders, teachers, nurses, construction workers, artists, typists, and many other professions have carpal tunnel syndrome as a workplace issue. It is common for carpal tunnel syndrome to show up in the wrist, but the fingers are just as vulnerable to the syndrome. When a person suspects they have carpal tunnel syndrome, they will have constant tingling in their fingertips as well as a numb feeling in the wrist.
Not many people have heard of
standard hand and arm vibration syndrome, but it's very common for people who work in construction, as well as those who work with heavy machinery in other fields, to develop it at one point in their career. It is long term or permanent damage to the hands, wrists, forearms, and even shoulders of a person who works with heavy duty tools. Those with hand and arm vibration syndrome can also lose all of the feeling in their fingers and develop early arthritis.
What a workplace can do to minimize these types of injuries
Any worker who works with heavy vibrating tools must take more breaks than the standard industry designated brakes. They must take turns with others and stop using high powered tools for a significant part of their shift. This will help every person who must use power tools from numbness in the fingers. Employees can also wear the anti-vibration gloves or vibration dampening gloves.
