Occupational vibration effects on workers health and quality of life

The aim of this study was to discover if the vibrations transmitted to metal industry workers' hand-arm system affect their health and quality of life. For evaluation, a vibration meter and two questionnaires were used, one of them prepared through bibliographic research and the other corresponding to the MOS-SF36. The procedure consisted of the attachment of the pre-calibrated device to workers who later responded to both questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered through an interviewer. The study revealed that the workers exposed to hand-arm system vibrations manifest typical hand-arm vibrations syndrome, with these symptoms increasing in proportion to working time. We also concluded that the workers that are exposed to these vibrations are the ones with the worst quality of life. In a general way, most of the issues related to the quality of life at work are affected by the exposure time to the vibrations referenced above and by the number of symptoms in the hand-arm vibration syndrome. So we may conclude that the health and quality of life of the workers are affected by the exposure time to vibrations transmitted in the hand-arm system and by the number of typical symptoms of the hand-arm vibration syndrome that they have.