How Many Of You Developed HAVS Raynaud's or Vibration Finger at Work?

[5ftFemInConstruction]

My GP believes I have HAVS, my OH doesn't, but my OH is basing it on more advanced symptoms for a stereotypical person in the construction business as in big build and under good working conditions, my GP is basing it on possible earlier symptoms based on my size, gender, and bad work conditions like no thermal protection at work. Would like to share experiences with others as in a potluck, just been dismissed due to it from work.

[Glow-worm]

Hi, 5ftFem! I had a problem with the blood supply in my hands from childhood. I have had various types of jobs, but the one I did for longest was an office job, working at a keyboard (just what I'd never wanted to do!). While I was employed there I started getting the arboriculture (chainsaw) qualifications I wanted. Then I visited an occupational therapist, and she advised me not to go into tree surgery because of the Raynauds in my hands. Anyway, in the computery office, I developed a wrist and arm problem in my last year there, and my doctor thought it was repetitive strain injury. It got bad enough for me to have to take time off to rest the injury, and in the end I chose to resign and get a different occupation. I still hankered after working in arboriculture or horticulture, and after a bit of this and that, I landed up in a lowly role in a grounds maintenance company. I had worked as a groundsman for the same company before getting my office job. But by now, the company had been taken over by a huge profiteering PLC & was under a different name.

Anyhow, after a short while I got a nice placement in a boarding school with extensive grounds, with lots of enjoyable grounds work, gardening and tree maintenance to do. Unfortunately the machine tools we had were falling apart. We had mowers where the brakes had failed, we had hedgecutters with bolts missing, etc. So the levels of vibration were even worse than with properly maintained tools.

When I started to experience a peculiar feeling inside certain fingers (as though a guitar string were vibrating inside), my foreman told me it was White Finger (Hand/Arm Vibration Syndrome). We did report it to the H&S manager, and he did come out to interview me, but nothing else happened.

Now we get to the point where this relates to you. When I contacted the Health and Safety Executive, I found out that they had not received any report of this disease occurrence from my employer.

What I would like to say to you is that HAVS is a notifiable occupational disease. Your employer appears to have acted illegally in three respects:

1. It is their legal responsibility to provide employees with appropriate protective clothing and equipment for the job.

2. It is their legal responsibility to report occurrences of notifiable occupational diseases to the Health and Safety Executive.

3. You say they have sacked you because you have developed this disease through this employment and partly as a result of the employer's neglect of their duty of care.

If you have the drive and energy to pursue it, you have a case against them which you could take up at an employment tribunal. (It could help you if you had a trade union who could support you through such a process, or if colleagues would give you support).

I regret to say I never did make the effort to stand up against my awful employer and challenge them over their failures in regard to health and safety regulations.

Maybe you have got more energy and drive than me. Maybe you can?

[Glow-worm]

By the way, if you do ever go back into that kind of work again, may I suggest that you get yourself some chainsaw mitts, and use the best kind of hand protection you can obtain for yourself? When working in winter at a garden centre more recently, I used to have various sets of gloves and mittens which I kept at work. One arrangement I needed in winter was a pair of large rubber gloves which I could wear over thin knitted gloves to keep them dry but still allow me to use my fingers.

The more you can rest your injury and avoid activities which exacerbate it, you may find it eases off a bit. That is what I have found with the RSI inflammation and also the HAVS. But my experience is that the problems do kick off again when there is enough of a trigger (including , in my case, using large power tools, or too much repetitive computer work). I began getting a new form of the problem last winter, through my latest computer-based desk job, but I got myself an ergonomic mouse & a different keyboard, which has helped.)