How to identify a vibrating injury

Generally, the symptoms of vibration white finger (VWF) usually start when your hands get cold.

The first sign of vibration white finger (VWF) is often an occasional attack and only the fingertips become white.  However if the hands continue to suffer vibration the injury becomes worse.  Sometimes a person may not suffer the white finger injury and instead suffer only the sensory nerve damage, developing problems of pins and needles or numbness in their fingers.

Workers at risk of VWF are those that regularly use hand-held powered tools such as;

Concrete breakers, chipping hammers, jigger picks; vibrating pokers; sanders, angle grinders; vibratory compactors; hammer drills, jigsaws; and scabblers.

A list of the symptoms of VWF from its mildest form to its most severe are:

• Tingling and numbness in the fingers, often continuing after use of machinery.
• One finger temporarily turns white and may start to ache.
• The finger turns white more often. Other fingers begin turning white. After several fingers turn white, the disease is probably irreversible; the thumb is not usually affected.
• The sufferer experiences increasingly frequent painful attacks at any time.
• In extreme cases the sufferer may lose fingers - this is more likely when the worker is using vibrating machinery at very low temperatures

If your employer has failed to take steps to reduce excessive noise in your working environment or provide protective equipment such as ear defenders etc -  you may be entitled to make a claim.

Read more

Also how to identify whether you have grounds to make a claim for vibration injury. 

You may also wish to learn about the key legal issues in vibration white finger VWF claims.

Many people have made successful claims for white finger.

Case law regarding vibration injury claims

More links:

What is Vibration white finger? - protecting workers against vibration injury - HSE on Vibration injuries