Phoenix Journal · LEV Testing
A plain-English guide to the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 - what the action and limit values mean, how exposure adds up, and the controls that keep workers safe.
Vibration is one of those workplace risks that stays quiet for years and then turns permanent - so the rules exist to catch it long before that happens.
The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 are the piece of UK health and safety law that deal with two related hazards: hand-arm vibration, which travels from a powered tool into the fingers, hands and arms, and whole-body vibration, which reaches a worker through a seat or a standing platform. Both can cause lasting damage, and both are covered by the same set of duties enforced by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
If your work involves powered rotary tools, needle guns, wire brushes, breakers or driving plant across a site, this is a regulation you are expected to understand and act on - not just have a copy of on file. The good news is that the framework is practical. It gives you clear numbers to work to, a straightforward way of estimating exposure, and a hierarchy of sensible controls. This article explains what those numbers mean and how the duties land in real working life.
The numbers that matter
The regulations work around two thresholds. The exposure action value (EAV) is the daily level at which you have to start doing something: reduce exposure so far as is reasonably practicable, and put affected workers under health surveillance. The exposure limit value (ELV) is the hard ceiling - the maximum a worker may be exposed to in a single day, which must never be exceeded.
For hand-arm vibration the EAV is 2.5 m/s₂ A(8) and the ELV is 5.0 m/s₂ A(8). For whole-body vibration the EAV is 0.5 m/s₂ A(8) and the ELV is 1.15 m/s₂ A(8). The A(8) part is the key: every figure is an average spread across a notional eight-hour working day, so a short burst on a fierce tool and a long stint on a gentle one can land at the same place.
To make the sums easier, the HSE publishes an exposure points system alongside a ready reckoner and an online calculator. In that system 100 points equals the action value and 400 points equals the limit value. You add up the points from each tool a person uses across the day; once the running total passes 100 you are into action-value territory, and 400 is the line you are not allowed to cross. It turns an intimidating physics calculation into simple addition.
Duct, extraction and deep-cleaning work is more vibration-heavy than people expect. Removing baked-on grease and scale rarely comes off with a cloth alone. Rotary brushes fed down a run of ductwork, needle guns and descalers on stubborn deposits, angle grinders opening up an access panel, and wire wheels stripping a canopy still warm at 40°C after a shift - each of these puts vibration straight into the operator's hands.
The figures are sobering once you see how fast exposure builds. A typical angle grinder runs at somewhere between 7 and 12 m/s₂ in real use. At around 9 m/s₂ a worker reaches the hand-arm action value in roughly four minutes of trigger time, and the limit value in about sixteen minutes. Trigger time - the total time the tool is actually vibrating against the hand, not the length of the shift - is what counts. A job that feels like light touching-up can quietly use up a whole day's allowance before the morning is out.
The harm this is guarding against is Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), and it is permanent but entirely preventable. Early signs are tingling and numbness in the fingers, then a loss of grip strength. Left to develop it leads to the blanching known as vibration white finger, along with nerve and joint damage that never fully recovers. Whole-body vibration, meanwhile, is linked to back pain in people who spend long periods on ride-on plant. Because the damage creeps in slowly, health surveillance exists to catch the first signs - and it is a legal requirement for anyone likely to be regularly exposed above the action value.
Meeting the regulations is not about handing out anti-vibration gloves and hoping. Gloves are near the bottom of the pecking order and do little for the low frequencies that cause most harm. The law asks you to start higher up and work down - the same logic as the wider hierarchy of control that runs through UK health and safety.
In practice that means, in order of preference:
Underpinning all of it is a suitable and sufficient risk assessment: identify the tools in use, estimate each person's daily exposure in points, and record what you are doing to keep it below the action value wherever reasonably practicable. Where exposure genuinely can't be kept under the limit value, the honest answer is to change the job - not to push on and breach the regulation.
Vibration sits alongside the other exposure risks a well-run kitchen or plant room has to manage - fume, grease-laden air, dust and the local ventilation that carries them away. Controlling one without the others leaves a gap, which is why the same operators who take vibration seriously tend to keep their extraction and LEV in equally good order.
Questions
The exposure action value (EAV) is the daily level at which you must start controlling exposure and put affected workers under health surveillance - 2.5 m/s2 A(8) for hand-arm vibration. The exposure limit value (ELV) is the absolute daily ceiling that must never be exceeded, set at 5.0 m/s2 A(8) for hand-arm vibration. In the HSE points system the action value is 100 points and the limit value is 400 points. Crossing the limit value is a breach of the regulations.
Much faster than most people assume, because only trigger time - the time the tool is actually vibrating in the hand - counts. A typical angle grinder running around 9 m/s2 reaches the hand-arm action value in roughly four minutes and the limit value in about sixteen minutes of trigger time. That is why planning and job rotation matter so much, rather than relying on the length of the shift as a guide.
No. Gloves sit near the bottom of the hierarchy of control and offer little protection against the low frequencies that cause most harm. The regulations expect you to reduce exposure at source first - eliminating or substituting the vibrating task, keeping tools and consumables well maintained, and limiting trigger time. Gloves and health surveillance support those measures but never replace them.
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