White Finger Vibration – An Overview
One of the common industrial disease affecting millions of people in UK is Vibration White Finger. Every year around 3000 people make claims because they are afflicted by this disease. This disease is caused by excessive and prolonged usage of vibrating hand held power tools where one is working.
You get affected by repetitive vibration in your fingers and hands. With gradual passage of time, blood supply to hands and arms gets restricted. This leads to one experiencing tingling sensation and loss of any feelings. Eventually, you lose grip when you are affected by White Finger. Further, this condition can deteriorate and you can get white patches on your fingers.
This disease affects workers who work in industries such as mining, construction and engineering and road maintenance etc. Women are more likely to get affected by this disease than men. The women who work in textile industry get injured by repetitive use of needles. The employers are thus required to take care to prevent excess use of vibrating tools, provide equipments which can protect employees, train workers to safely use the machines, maintain a reasonable working temperature and lastly ensure that the tools which are used are in good condition.
You can claim for compensation for getting affected by this disease. In this context, the behavior of the employers as well as the extent to which it affects a person’s domestic as well as working life is taken into account. The laws which safeguard a person affected by this disease are very complicated. This happens when there are many employers in a particular industry. Thus, an experienced solicitor has to be appointed to make claims for getting compensation.
