Even though the cross-sectional design of this epidemiological study does not allow aetiological considerations, our findings suggest a significant association between occupational use of vibratory tools and soft-tissue disorders in the upper limbs of female workers. Quantitative estimation of vibration exposure and ergonomic stress showed that these physical risk factors seem to contribute in a multiplicative way to the occurrence of chronic nerve and musculoskeletal disorders in female workers operating hand-held vibrating tools in the furniture industry.

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School gymnasia and swimming pools are generally environments affected by poor acoustic conditions due to absence of sound absorbing materials, noisy sport activities, presence of many students at the same time and intensive use of blowing whistles to enforce the communication. The consequence is that physical education teachers can not only show long term stress but they can also be exposed to noise risk to noise-induced hearing loss. Investigation has shown that the problem is quite large; as many as 20-25% of physical education teachers can be affected by a noise exposure higher than acceptable limits. It is then necessary to analyze in detail all factors that can influence the noise in these special school environments in order to develop simple acoustical guidelines useful for school officials for stress management and hearing conservation programs. © 2009 Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

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Background: Workers who use hand-held vibrating tools may experience finger blanching attacks due to episodic vasospasm in the digital vessels. In occupational medicine, the pathological consequences to the exposure to handtransmitted vibration are known as vibration induced white finger (VWF). In many cases, workers are recommended to use anti-vibration gloves and a standard procedure (ISO 10819) is used to test and qualify such anti-vibration gloves. Some problems and limits are known for what concerns the measurement and procedure proposed by this standard. Materials and methods: Hand-arm vibration transmissibility (ratio between rms acceleration on different points of the upper side of the hand and the handle rms acceleration) of 13 healthy subjects (main BMI: 24.3 [kg/m 2 ]) was measured using a mono-axial accelerometer on the handle and a laser Doppler vibrometer on several points on the hand. The laser vibrometer eliminates any mass loading effect on the hand tissue. Seven single frequency excitations (rms acceleration amplitude: 3 m/s 2 ) have been tested: 15, 20, 30, 50, 70, 90 and 110 Hz. Closed loop control of the handle acceleration is provided. Monitoring of the push force (50 ± 5.0 N) has been carried out during the test. Results: Transmissibility higher then one (1.54) has been measured at the tip of the fingers, especially for vibration frequencies lower then 70 Hz, while transmissibility lower then 1 (0.20) is reported on the hand knuckles for frequencies higher then 30 Hz. Conclusions: The measurement procedure presented a non-contact measurement of the vibration transmissibility of the human hand and in particular its spatial distribution over the hand.