Glove and Tool Intervention to Reduce Hand-Arm Vibration

描述（由申请人提供）：这项拟议的干预研究旨在减少电动工具的显著振动暴露，涉及一个由外部和NIOSH内部调查员组成的团队。假设抗振动工具设计与某些吸收性材料（如手套）相结合，可以提供特定频率的过滤和消除，从而可能消除工具特定振动暴露的临床和亚临床后遗症。提出的结构化干预，加上密集的实验室评估，提出了两个假设：1)手套和工具的透射光谱匹配可以从根本上减少向手臂系统的能量传递；2)通过专门的传感器实时、全位移、记录暴露和测量跨位移生理反应可以准确地量化暴露减少。为了达到学习目标，需要具备以下条件：振动传递到手部的现场设置可以在整个工作日内进行评估，同时考虑握持和姿势、工作模式、恢复和多种工具的变化。2. 一个应用实验室，在这里工具和手套可以与熟练的人类受试者进行评估，以量化最有前途的工具和材料。3. 一个基础科学实验室，配备激光振动仪和三轴刺激发生器，用于在现场测量的工具的时间和力域产生3d复制品。4. 一个电子实验室，配备对数据记录仪和传感器进行适当修改，以供现场测试，以及用于检测手功能快速交叉位移变化的转速计。一家全国性的大型制造商也加入了这个项目。这项研究旨在为数百万美国工人提供一个具有重要公共健康影响的手臂振动保护的实用解决方案。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposed intervention study to reduce significant vibratory exposures from power tools involves a team of extramural and NIOSH intramural investigators. It presumes that anti-vibration tool design coupled to certain absorbent materials, available as gloving, can in combination provide frequency specific filtering and cancellation that will likely eliminate clinical and some sub-clinical sequalae of tool-specific vibratory exposure. The proposed structured intervention, coupled to intensive laboratory assessment, advances two hypotheses: 1) that matching the transmission spectra of gloves and tools can radically reduce energy transfer to the hand- arm system; and 2) that the real time, full-shift, logging of exposure through specialized sensors and the measurement of cross-shift physiological responses can accurately quantify exposure reduction. In order to reach study aims, the following will be required: 1. Field settings where transmissibility of vibration to the hand can be assessed over a full working day, while accounting for variation in grip and posture, work patterns, recovery, and multiple tools. 2. An applied laboratory where tools and gloves can be evaluated with skilled human subjects to quantify the most promising tools and materials. 3. A basic sciences laboratory equipped with laser vibrometry and a tri-axial stimulus generator for producing 3-D replica in the time and force domains of tools measured in the field. 4. An electronics laboratory equipped to make appropriate revisions to data loggers and sensors for field testing, and tactometers for detecting rapid cross-shift changes in hand function. A major national manufacturer has joined this project. This study is designed to provide a practical solution to hand-arm vibration protection with important public health consequences for several million American workers. Public Health Relevance: The adverse effects on the hands from industrial exposure to vibration have been recognized for almost a century. We propose an intervention study featuring the use of available anti-vibration (AV) power tools and gloves in order to reduce vibration exposure. We suggest that by pairing laboratory-based optimization of glove-tool combinations for specific tools together with a field study to verify performance we can successfully lower exposures to a level where symptomatic disease can ultimately be prevented.