Study Shows Smoking Worsens Hand Arm Vibration

Symptoms of Vibration White Finger are significantly higher in people who smoke.

The study involved more than 600 workers who deal with pneumatic tools, or vibrating hand-held equipment, on a regular basis. Conducted tests showed that those who were actively smoking experienced harsh vascular responses during cold weather than those who don’t.

Smoking is an unhealthy habit that has been found to be a contributor to a lot of fatal diseases like lung cancer, hypertension, heart ailments, and strokes. Add to the list one industrial injury that causes hand arm vibration—Vibration Induced White Finger—that’s common to workers who deal with vibrating hand-held devices on a regular basis.

Vibration Induced White Finger, also called the Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome, is a condition that affects a person’s fingers mobility. It is caused by the exposure to vibrations from power tools like chainsaws and grinders—the kind used in jobs like coal mining, road construction, and stone cutters.

This condition causes restricted blood flow to the fingers, which leads to numbness and loss of feelings. It causes discoloration and can be painful especially when subjected to cold weather. An afflicted person can also experience reduced grip strength, making handling certain objects difficult.

At first, the symptoms of hand arm vibration syndrome can be very minor and appear only during cold weather. But when there is prolonged exposure to vibrating equipment, the symptoms can worsen and even occur during less severe conditions like warm weather or even getting the hands wet.

Continued use of tobacco can worsen hand arm vibration because it constricts the blood vessels, limiting the amount of blood that flows in it. It also damages the nerves.

The study also found that even after ceasing to use vibrating tools, workers who still smoke are less likely to see improvements. Smoking causes a delay in their physiological improvement.

The effects of smoking have been, time and again, taught to nearly every single person on the planet. It doesn’t do one’s health any good. It puts one at risk of debilitating ailments. It doesn’t just discolor one’s fingers—it kills too.

If you need to handle vibrating machinery at work, you should be aware of an industrial injury known as the vibrating white finger or vibration induced white finger. Some of the common vibration white finger symptoms include pain, numbness, and tingling feeling on your hands. If you think you might be suffering from these white finger syndrome, hand and arm vibration syndrome or hand arm vibration syndrome, then you should consider getting a claim for vibration white finger for you to get a chance in getting a vibration white finger compensation. A vibration white finger claim, vibration white finger claims or hand arm vibration syndrome claim is most common among workers in the construction and mining industry. Some even say that vwf compensation  or vwf claims, short for vibration white finger claims, is nearly normal in these industries where white finger compensation rising from a white finger claim is not unheard of. Thanks to vibration white finger compensation, white finger vibration sufferers now have a chance of getting their injury’s worth. Nowadays, this condition is now being called hand arm vibration thanks to their hand arm vibration exposure from vibrating equipment. Hand arm vibration syndrome havs sufferers should know that filing a havs claim to get a hold of hand arm vibrating syndrome compensation or havs compensation is necessary.