Groundworkers toolbox talk pack

This talk is about excavations: trenches, pits, and anything we open in the ground that someone could be buried in, or fall into. HSE says every year people are killed or seriously injured by collapses and falling materials while working in excavations. I am not adding a count. The page does not give one. The risks it names are an excavation collapsing and burying or injuring people, material falling from the sides, and people or plant falling in.

The line I want remembered is HSE's. No ground can be relied upon to stand unsupported in all circumstances. Depending on conditions, a cubic metre of soil can weigh in excess of 1.5 tonnes. That is why a trench that 'looked fine yesterday' is not a method. Trenchless techniques should always be considered at the design stage, because they can remove the need for a major excavation. If we are digging because it is the habit, we have skipped that question.

Before any trench, pit, tunnel or other excavation, decide the temporary support and plan the precautions. Make sure the equipment is on site before work starts. HSE's examples are trench sheets, props and baulks. Deciding you need support after the sides have already been stood in is late. Battering the sides to a safe angle can also make it safer. In granular soils the slope should be less than the natural angle of repose of the material. In wet ground a considerably flatter slope is required. Rain overnight is a reason to look again, not a reason to hope.

Spoil and plant make collapses more likely. Loose material can fall from spoil heaps into the excavation. Edge protection should include toe boards or other means, such as projecting trench sheets or the sides of a box, to protect against falling materials. Head protection should be worn. Do not park plant and vehicles close to the sides. The extra load can make the sides collapse. People fall in as well as soil. Edges need substantial barriers where people are liable to fall. HSE's ways to do that are guard rails and toe boards inserted into the ground immediately next to the supported side, or fabricated guard rail assemblies that connect to the trench box, or the support itself, such as trench box extensions or trench sheets longer than the trench is deep.

What is next to the hole matters as much as the hole. Do not undermine scaffold footings, buried services, or the foundations of nearby buildings or walls. HSE says many garden or boundary walls have very shallow foundations, easily undermined by even a small trench, so the wall collapses onto the people in it. Before digging, decide if the structure needs extra support. A survey of the foundations and a structural engineer may be required. A wall that has stood for years is not evidence it will stand with its foundation cut away.

Services are a reason to stop, not a reason to be careful with the bucket and carry on. HSE says many serious accidents have happened when buried services were damaged. Contact with an electricity cable can cause explosion and burns to people nearby. Escaping gas that ignites can cause serious injury and property damage from fire and explosion. Excavation should not start until steps have been taken to identify and prevent injury from underground services. Overhead lines are the same family of harm. Burns and electrocution can result if a raised tipper body or an excavator touches a line, or comes close enough to arc. Everyone close to plant that becomes live is at risk, not only the operator. HSE says the need to excavate close to or under those lines should be considered very carefully and avoided where possible. The electrical talk has the overhead-line actions. This talk's rule is that we do not dig until we know what is in the ground and what is above the machine.

Water changes the support. Depending on how permeable the ground is, water may flow into an excavation below the groundwater level. The side supports should be designed to control that, and the design should take the extra water load into account. Pay particular attention near lakes, rivers and the sea. Water needs to be channelled to sumps and pumped out, and the effect of that pumping on stability has to be considered. Other ways of de-watering exist. Designers have to consider them. A pump thrown in because the bottom is wet is not that design.

People fall in as well as soil, and not only the people doing the digging. HSE's public-protection page says members of the public are seriously injured by falling into trenches, and that openings and excavations need barriers or covers. Getting in and out is part of the precaution, not an afterthought. Provide a safe means of access and egress. If a risk assessment says a ladder is a reasonable means, HSE says it must be suitable and strong enough, on a firm level base, secured so it cannot slip, and, unless there is a suitable alternative handhold, extend at least 1 metre above the landing place. Fumes are the quiet hazard. Do not use petrol or diesel engines in an excavation unless the fumes are ducted safely away or you have forced ventilation. Do not site a generator or a compressor in the excavation or near the edge. Exhaust can collect.

Inspection is every shift, not every time someone remembers. A competent person who fully understands the dangers and the precautions should inspect at the start of each shift. Also inspect after any event that may have affected strength or stability, or after a fall of rock or earth. A record is required. Faults are corrected immediately. HSE says a written report should be made following most inspections, and it should include who it was done for, the location and description, the date and time, anything that could give rise to a risk, action taken, further action needed, and the name and position of the person making the report. Today: what is supporting the sides, where are the services, how do we get out, and who inspected it at the start of this shift?

This talk is about electricity on this job: the building we are opening up, the tools we plug in, and any overhead line or buried cable we could reach. HSE's page on electrical systems in buildings says electricity can kill, and that unlike most other hazards you cannot see it, feel it, hear it or smell it, so there is no warning. The law says you must take precautions against death or injury from electricity during construction work. Refurbishment is the greatest risk, and it has to be planned, managed and monitored. Specialist electrical work is only for people who are trained and competent, following strict procedures. The equipment has to be safe and maintained.

HSE says about three workers are electrocuted each year during refurbishment on commercial and domestic buildings. Further deaths happen in incidents with overhead power lines and underground cables. I am using that figure as HSE states it. I have not updated it. Incidents inside buildings involve electricians and other trades. They happen when equipment was assumed to be dead but was live, or was known to be live and the precautions were not enough. Plumbers and joiners are named, not only electricians. Electricians are not immune either. HSE says a number of the electrocutions involve qualified electricians.

The people planning a refurbishment have to understand the electrical system and talk to the occupier, so the work does not compromise the system or the people. If the work, including labouring, joinery or plumbing, is liable to disturb or damage the existing system, the relevant parts should be isolated. Electrical contractors should not work live if it can be avoided, and they should not make a system live before the work is finished and everything is installed correctly. Safe isolation procedures must be followed at all times. A chat photo of a consumer unit is not isolation. If we do not know whether it is dead, we treat it as live and we stop until someone competent has isolated it and proved it.

Tools are the everyday risk. HSE says tools, plugs and cables designed for DIY and domestic use are not suitable for site conditions. Use cordless tools, or tools on a 110 volt centre-tapped-to-earth supply, so the maximum voltage to earth does not exceed 55 volts. Inspect power tools regularly and take them out of service if they are damaged. A qualified electrician services them. No makeshift repairs. Where 230 volt mains equipment is used, the risk is high if a tool, a lead or the equipment is damaged or faulty. HSE's checks for 230 volt equipment are a visual check for damage every shift, a visual inspection every week, and a combined inspection and test before first use on a site and then every month. Records of those checks should be kept. An RCD detects some faults, not all of them, and switches the supply off quickly. It has to be properly installed and enclosed, checked daily, treated with care, kept free of moisture and dirt, and protected against vibration and mechanical damage. An RCD is not a reason to leave a damaged lead in use.

Lighting on a temporary system needs the same care. Protect cabling and bulbs. A broken bulb can leave a live filament. Check bulbs so the site stays both electrically safe and well lit. The fire talk covers lamps as an ignition source. This talk covers the shock.

Overhead lines are a separate hazard, and ladders, scaffold tubes, tippers, lorry-mounted cranes and MEWPs are on HSE's list of what reaches them. Accidental contact kills people and causes serious injuries. So does a flashover, when a person or an object gets too close without touching the line. Going close can be enough. Voltages lower than 230 volts can kill. Do not mistake a line on a wooden pole for a telephone wire. Electricity can bypass wood, plastic or rubber if it is damp or dirty. Do not rely on gloves or rubber boots. Assume a line is live unless the owner has proved otherwise. Find out whether a line crosses the work or the access before you arrive with a high vehicle. The information comes from the distribution network operator. If a line is there, talk to the owner in time for it to be diverted or made dead, or for other precautions.

HSE's order is to eliminate the danger where you can: do the work somewhere else, have the line diverted, or have it made dead. If you cannot, control the access and the work. Barriers go at the clearance distance the distribution network operator gives you. Passageways under a line should be as narrow as the plant needs and should cross at right angles where possible. If work under a live line cannot be avoided, use barriers, goal posts and warning notices, keep anything that could reach past the safe clearance out of the area, and put physical restraints on cranes, excavators and telehandlers so they cannot be altered on the day. Someone suitable supervises the plant. The ladder talk includes HSE's rule: do not work within 6 metres horizontally of an overhead line unless it has been made dead or protected with insulation.

If a vehicle or a load touches a line, HSE says stay in the cab and tell the distribution network operator immediately. Warn everyone else to stay clear. Try to drive clear. If you have to get out because of fire, jump clear. Do not climb down the steps. Never try to untangle the equipment until the owner of the line has confirmed it is dead and safe. A line can trip out and then re-energise on its own, without warning. Keep the operator's number in the cab and on the phone before you need it.

Buried cables are on the same HSE page as a cause of further deaths. This talk does not invent a scanning method. If we do not know where the services are, from the occupier, the drawings, or the operator, we do not dig, drill or drive a pin through them. We stop and find out. Today: what is live, what has been isolated and proved, what voltage the tools are on, and where any line crosses the access. If the answer is that we are not sure, we do not start.

This talk is about a space that is enclosed, or largely enclosed, where someone could be seriously hurt by what is in the air or by what can flood in. HSE's definition is specific. A confined space is both enclosed or largely enclosed and has a reasonably foreseeable specified risk to workers of fire, explosion, loss of consciousness, asphyxiation, or drowning. It can be small and restrictive. It can also be large. HSE's example of a large one is a grain storage silo. A loft, a cupboard or a plant room is not a confined space just because it is awkward. It becomes this talk when it is enclosed and one of those risks is reasonably foreseeable. I read HSE's introduction, the legislation page, and leaflet INDG258 on 20 October 2026.

The danger is not the squeeze. HSE says working in a confined space is dangerous because of noxious fumes, reduced oxygen, or a risk of fire. Other dangers include flooding, drowning, or asphyxiation from dust, grain or another contaminant. INDG258 describes the same idea as any space of an enclosed nature where there is a risk of death or serious injury from hazardous substances or dangerous conditions, for example a lack of oxygen. Some spaces are obvious. INDG258 lists storage tanks, silos, reaction vessels, enclosed drains and sewers. Others are easier to miss and can be just as dangerous: open-topped chambers, vats, ductwork, and unventilated or poorly ventilated rooms. HSE says it is not possible to list every confined space. Some places become confined spaces when work is carried out in them, or during construction, fabrication, or later modification. A chamber that was safe to look into yesterday is not a method for today.

The law splits into two steps I want read out. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks, so you can decide the measures. For this work, INDG258 says that assessment usually takes in the task, the working environment, the materials and tools, whether the people doing it are suitable, and the arrangements for emergency rescue. You may need a competent person to help, and the people doing the work have to be trained and instructed. If that assessment finds a risk of serious injury from work in a confined space, the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 apply. HSE's legislation page sets out the three duties: avoid entry, for example by doing the work from outside; if entry cannot be avoided, follow a safe system of work; and put adequate emergency arrangements in place before the work starts.

Avoiding entry is the duty, not a preference. Ask whether the job has to be done in there at all. INDG258 says you can modify the space so entry is unnecessary, or do the work from outside. Its examples are clearing a blockage from outside, and using a remote camera to inspect a vessel. On our work, that question comes before anyone drops into a tank, a sealed void, a duct, a sewer, a manhole or an open-topped chamber. If we can see what we need to see, or clear what we need to clear, from outside, we stay outside.

If entry cannot be avoided, the controls are for this space, not for a generic tank. HSE's introduction says: if there are harmful fumes, consider how to ventilate them or remove them; if liquids or gases could flood in, establish whether the valves can be locked shut; if there is not enough oxygen to breathe properly, provide breathing apparatus or ventilate the space to increase the oxygen before anyone enters. INDG258 says mechanical and electrical equipment that could otherwise operate has to be isolated, and pipework has to be isolated if gas, fume or vapour could enter. In every case, check that the isolation has worked. The person who goes in has to be capable, and trained in the work and in the emergency equipment. Do not do this work unless it is essential. Do not ignore the risk because the space was safe on another day. Do not let the next person in until you are sure it is safe. Everyone involved needs to be trained and instructed in the safe system, and that system has to be put into practice, not left on a sheet in the van.

HSE's introduction gives an example I am not softening. Two men went into a closed crane compartment to look at a hydraulic fault. Within a minute, one had passed out and the other felt lightheaded but got out. Two others went in to help and were overcome. The emergency service got the three men out. Two of them died. Water in the compartment had caused rusting, which depleted the oxygen. HSE says that if the oxygen had been checked, the space could have been ventilated and the deaths avoided. The point for us is the rescue, not the crane. You need to know the person inside is all right and has not been overcome by fumes. You need a way to get them out. HSE says it is not enough to rely on the emergency services for that.

What we decide before anyone goes in today: is this space enclosed, and is fire, explosion, loss of consciousness, asphyxiation or drowning reasonably foreseeable? Can the job be done from outside? If not, what is isolated, what has been done to the air, who is trained to go in, who is staying outside, and how we get a person out without waiting only on the emergency services. If we cannot answer, we do not go in.

This talk is about dust from cutting, drilling, grinding, or polishing materials that contain silica. Bricks, tiles, concrete, and mortar contain it. Sandstone contains more than 70 percent silica. Granite might contain 15 to 30 percent. Those figures are HSE's. The fine dust is respirable crystalline silica, RCS. It is too fine to see in normal lighting. If the air looks clear, that is not proof it is safe.

HSE says silica is the biggest risk to construction workers after asbestos. Heavy and prolonged exposure to RCS can cause lung cancer and other serious lung diseases. Silicosis can cause severe breathing problems and increases the risk of lung infections. It usually follows exposure over many years, but extremely high exposures can cause acute silicosis more quickly. HSE also links silica to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including bronchitis and emphysema. HSE commissioned estimates that silica dust was responsible for the death of over 500 construction workers in 2005. That figure is for 2005. It is not a count I have updated, and it is not a reason to treat today's cut as harmless.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, COSHH, say you must protect against the risks from hazardous construction dust. HSE's leaflet for employees, INDG463, says control measures for RCS must be effective in keeping exposure below the workplace exposure limit of 0.1 milligrams per cubic metre of respirable dust, averaged over 8 hours. That is a limit for the controls to meet. It is not a target to work up to, and it is not something you can judge by eye.

Stop the dust getting into the air. HSE's construction dust sheet, CIS36, gives two main ways. Water damps the cloud down, but only if enough water is supplied at the right levels for the whole time the work is being done. Just wetting the material beforehand does not work. On-tool extraction removes dust as it is produced. It is local exhaust ventilation fitted to the tool: the tool, a capturing hood, an extraction unit, and tubing. Use an extraction unit to the correct specification. Do not just use a general commercial vacuum.

For silica, choose an H class or M class extraction unit. HSE's sheet on on-tool extraction, CIS69, says those units provide effective and reliable extraction and are fitted with low-flow indicators. Do not put a HEPA filter in a general commercial vacuum and call it done. An L class unit is only suitable for lower-toxicity dusts such as gypsum in plasterboard. It is not the unit for silica. The hood has to sit as close as possible to the work. Dust escapes through any gap. Empty the unit into the correct disposable waste bags, seal them, and put them in the right waste container. Do not empty the bags to recycle them. If you hire the unit, check with the hire company what examination they have done.

Water or extraction may not be enough. Often RPE has to be provided as well. HSE says the general level for construction dust is an assigned protection factor, APF, of 20. That means the wearer breathes one twentieth of the dust in the air. Common types at APF 20 are an FFP3 disposable mask, or a half mask with a P3 filter. For longer work, powered RPE such as a TH2 powered hood. CIS36 says consider powered RPE when people are working for more than an hour without a break, because disposable masks and half masks get uncomfortable. RPE is the last line of protection. If you are relying on RPE alone, HSE says you need to be able to justify why. Tight-fitting masks need a face-fit test, and the wearer needs to be clean shaven. The mask has to be the one that fits that person, not the one left on the dashboard.

For regular removal of dust and debris, CIS36 says damp it, or use vacuum attachments on an H or M class unit, and RPE with an APF of 20 depending on the location, the duration, and the dust. A brush, shovel, and bucket, after damping down, is described for minor one-off amounts, not as the everyday clean. Keep other people out of the dusty area. If the work still looks dusty, the control is not doing its job. Stop and tell the person in charge. Do not carry on and hope the mask will cover it.

On-tool extraction needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, by someone with the right knowledge, and a record that it was done. CIS69 also says formal maintenance checks at least once a week, and more often if the kit is getting damaged. A blocked filter is not a small annoyance. It is the control switched off.

This talk is about moving things by hand on this site. Manual handling, in HSE's words, means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying, or moving loads. A load can be an object, a person, or an animal. On our jobs it is usually boards, bags, a boiler, a length of timber, or a skip that should have been moved with a barrow.

HSE's page is written for employers. It says you must protect workers from the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling. The law sets out three steps. Avoid hazardous manual handling, so far as reasonably practicable. Assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling that cannot be avoided. Reduce the risk of injury to as low as reasonably practicable. The weight of a load is important. The law does not set specific weight limits. Do not let anyone on this site invent a kilogram figure and call it the legal maximum. There isn't one on that page.

In some cases you must provide information about the weight, and the position of the centre of gravity, of each load, if there is a risk of injury and it is reasonably practicable to do this. If the bag or the board has the weight on it, read it out before someone picks it up. If it does not, say that we do not know, and treat that as a reason to be careful, not as a reason to guess.

Good handling technique is not a substitute for the other steps. HSE says that plainly. Lifting aids, a lighter load, a shorter carry, a clear route, and a second person come first. The technique is an addition to those measures, not a replacement.

When a lift still has to be done by hand, HSE describes a basic lift with both hands, the load in front of the body and close to it, without twisting. Think before you lift. Where is it going? Can a handling aid do it? Do you need help? Clear the wrapping and the offcuts. For a long lift, from the floor to shoulder height, think about resting it mid-way so you can change your grip.

Keep the load close to your waist for as long as possible. Keep the heaviest side next to your body. If you cannot get close, slide it towards you before you try to lift it. Feet apart, one leg in front of the other, so you can move your feet during the lift. Hug the load close. A slight bend of the back, hips, and knees at the start is preferable to stooping, or to a full deep squat. Do not flex your back any further while lifting. That happens if the legs straighten before the load starts to rise. Do not twist or lean sideways, especially while the back is bent. Turn by moving your feet. Keep your head up and look ahead once the load is secure. Move smoothly. Do not jerk. Do not lift more than you can easily manage. HSE says there is a difference between what people are able to lift and what they can safely lift. If in doubt, get help. If you need to position it precisely, put it down, then slide it.

If the route is wet, dark, or blocked, that is part of the risk, not a reason to hurry. The slips talk covers the floor. This talk covers the load. If today's method says two people, it stays two people.

This talk is about noise that can damage hearing. It is not the vibration talk, though the same tools often do both. The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require employers to prevent or reduce risks from noise at work. Employees have duties too. HSE's list for employers is: assess the risks, take action to reduce the exposure, provide hearing protection if other methods cannot reduce it enough, make sure the legal limits are not exceeded, give information, instruction and training, and carry out health surveillance where there is a risk to health. Low-level noise that is only a nuisance, and does not risk hearing damage, is outside those regulations.

The action values are daily or weekly averages, plus a peak. HSE's employers page sets the lower exposure action values at a daily or weekly exposure of 80 dB(A), and a peak sound pressure of 135 dB(C). The upper exposure action values are 85 dB(A), and a peak of 137 dB(C). The exposure limit values, which must not be exceeded, are 87 dB(A) and a peak of 140 dB(C). HSE's book L108 says you must not permit exposure above those limit values at the ear, so the reduction from hearing protection can be taken into account there, and that if a limit is exceeded you must act immediately to get the exposure at the ear back below it. You cannot hear the difference between 80 and 85 and call it a measurement. These are not numbers you guess from how annoying a saw sounds.

On a construction site, HSE says you will probably have to do something about noise if people have to raise their voices to talk while about 2 metres apart, for at least part of the day, or if they use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour a day, or if they are exposed to regular impacts such as pneumatic drills, or to explosive sources such as cartridge-operated tools. A separate rule of thumb on HSE's assessing page says the level is probably 80 dB or more if the noise is intrusive but normal conversation is still possible between people 2 metres apart, and probably 85 dB or more if you have to shout to talk to someone 2 metres away for more than about two hours in total. Those are prompts to assess, not a certificate that a quieter spell was safe. Enclosed spaces reflect noise back and can raise the exposure. Give particular attention to anyone who already has a hearing problem.

HSE names the kit that puts people at higher risk if they use it regularly, or work near it: concrete breakers, pokers and compactors, sanders, grinders, disc cutters, hammer drills, chipping hammers, cartridge-operated tools, scabblers and needle guns, and heavy plant. The first control is to make less noise. Eliminate the noisy task at the design stage where you can. HSE's examples of a quieter process are a block splitter instead of a cut-off saw, bursting or crushing instead of pneumatic drilling, and boring instead of pile driving. Limit reversing, because reversing alarms add to the noise. Isolate people by keeping cab doors and windows closed, or by using remote-controlled equipment. Shut plant down when it is not in use.

If noisy work remains, HSE says select low-noise tools, fit mufflers, silencers and sound panels, use barriers or existing cabins to stop noise travelling, keep people out of noisy areas, put stationary plant far from the work, and move walkways away from it. Rotate people, and use quiet days, so the exposure is managed. Weekly averaging is allowed as a way to manage exposures. Hearing protection comes after that. HSE's construction noise page and the noise FAQ both say you should not rely on hearing protection as the only control. It fails and it gets misused. Too much protection is also a problem, because people on a site need to hear what is happening and need to talk.

The hearing protection page says what the law then requires. Provide protectors if an employee asks and their exposure is between the lower and upper action values. Provide them, and make sure they are used properly, when exposure exceeds the upper action values. Identify hearing protection zones, where use is compulsory, and mark them with signs. Train people how to use and care for them. Aim at least to get below 85 dB at the ear. Avoid protectors that reduce the level at the ear to below 70 dB, because that over-protection can isolate people and lead them to take the protection off. HSE gives a guide, not a substitute for a proper calculation, based on the single number rating of the protector and the noise level of the task: 20 or less for 85 to 90 dB, 20 to 30 for 90 to 95, 25 to 35 for 95 to 100, and 30 or more for 100 to 105. That table is not for noise with a lot of low frequency, and HSE lists press shops, generators, plant rooms and boiler houses among the places it does not fit. Do not make hearing protection compulsory where the law does not require it, and do not have a blanket rule that ignores the task.

Protection only works when it is worn and fitted. Taking it off for a few minutes in the noise considerably lowers the protection. Long hair, woolly hats, spectacles and earrings can spoil the fit. So can a hard hat, a dust mask or eye protection, if the combination was not thought through. Check that earmuff seals are undamaged, that the headband still has its tension, that nobody has modified the protector, and that compressible plugs are soft, clean and pliable. Provide a range so people can find one that suits them. Health surveillance, meaning hearing checks, is needed if people are frequently exposed above the upper action value, or if they are at risk for another reason, such as already having hearing loss. If a check finds a problem, review the controls and act to prevent further harm.

HSE is plain about the harm. Noise can seriously damage hearing. Some people get a ringing in the ears, tinnitus, which can become permanent. Once hearing has gone, it will not come back. There is no cure. Hearing aids cannot fully compensate. The damage can make it harder to hear warnings, which is how a hearing problem becomes an accident. If today's job needs a shout at two metres, we look for a quieter way before we reach for the defenders. If the defenders are the control, they stay on for the whole noisy spell, and they are the pair that fits with the hat.

This talk is about hand-arm vibration from the tools we hold. Breakers, cut-off saws, hammer drills, grinders, sanders, impact wrenches, needle scalers, and the rest of the van. If you hold a workpiece that vibrates while a machine works on it, that counts too.

Hand-arm vibration syndrome, HAVS, is preventable. Once the damage is done, it is permanent. HSE says that on its key-messages page, and again on the page written for workers. Damage can include not being able to do fine work, and cold can trigger painful finger-blanching attacks. HSE's key messages also say nearly 2 million people are at risk. That is HSE's figure. I am not turning it into a percentage of this crew.

The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 set two figures for hand-arm vibration. The exposure action value is a daily exposure of 2.5 metres per second squared A(8). At that level, employers should introduce technical and organisational measures to reduce exposure. The exposure limit value is 5.0 metres per second squared A(8), which should not be exceeded. These are daily exposures, not a vibe you can feel and then ignore. You cannot guess them from how much the handle buzzes.

HSE's page for workers says you are particularly at risk if you regularly operate hammer-action tools for more than about 15 minutes a day, or some rotary and other action tools for more than about one hour a day, because you are likely to be above the exposure action value. Those times are a prompt to take the regulations seriously. They are not a promise that 14 minutes is safe, and they are not a limit you can set for a tool you have not looked up. The exposure depends on the tool. HSE publishes a vibration calculator for the sum. The manufacturer's data, and the way the tool is actually used, belong in that sum. Do not let a guess stand in for it.

Early signs HSE tells workers to look for: tingling and numbness in the fingers, which can disturb sleep. Not being able to feel things with your fingers. Loss of strength in the hands. In the cold and wet, the tips of the fingers going white, then red, and being painful on recovery. That last one is vibration white finger. If you keep using high-vibration tools, HSE says these symptoms will probably get worse: numbness that becomes permanent, trouble picking up small objects such as screws or nails, and white finger that happens more often and spreads to more fingers.

It is the employer's responsibility to protect you. HSE also says you should help. Ask whether the job can be done a different way, without the vibrating tool. That is the control HSE puts first: new or alternative methods that eliminate or reduce exposure. If the tool still has to be used, ask for a suitable low-vibration tool. Use the right tool for the job so the work is quicker. Check the tool before use. A fault or general wear increases vibration. Keep cutting tools sharp. Do other jobs in between, so you are not on the tool for one long stretch. Do not grip or force it harder than you have to. Do not leave tools so the handles are freezing the next time. Keep warm and dry. Smoking reduces blood flow, which is why HSE mentions cutting down. Report symptoms promptly to your employer or the person who does the health checks. Health surveillance is how early damage gets picked up. Use the controls that have been put in place. Do not tape the trigger or take the guard off to get finished.

If your hands are tingling after a normal spell on a tool, say so today. Waiting until you cannot pick up a screw is waiting too long. HSE is clear that the damage does not undo itself.