Under the Control of Vibration Regulations 2005 your employer must prevent or reduce risks to your health and safety from exposure to vibration at work by carrying out a risk assessment for vibration, and eliminating, or where elimination is not reasonably practicable, reducing exposure to vibration to as low a level as is reasonably practicable.
They must decide if you are likely to be exposed to vibration in excess of the daily exposure action value (EAV). For hand-arm vibration this is a daily exposure of 2.5 m/s2 A(8) and for whole body vibration it is 0.5 m/s2 A(8). (See How is vibration measured? for more information on this.)
If this is the case they must introduce a programme of controls to eliminate the risk, or reduce the exposure to vibration to as low a level as is reasonably practicable.
If you are exposed to the daily exposure limit value (ELV) they must take immediate action to reduce your exposure to below this limit. For hand-arm vibration this is a daily exposure of 0.5 m/s2 A(8) and for whole body vibration it is 1.15 m/s2 A(8).
Your employer must also provide information and training on the health risks and the actions they are taking to control the risks, and carry out health surveillance where there is a risk to your health.
The Regulations included transitional periods concerning the limit values. For any work equipment first provided before 6 July 2007 the limits came into force on 6 July 2010. For whole-body vibration in agriculture and forestry they apply from 6 July 2014.
