Whole-body vibration knowledge survey of U.S. occupational safety and health professionals

Whole-body vibration (WBV) is an occupational issue of concern due to adverse health effects or simple discomfort and annoyance. Unlike in Europe, WBV is an emerging topic in the U.S. safety and health (S&H) professional community. We hypothesized that at least one-half of the U.S. occupational S&H professionals knew little or nothing about WBV.

We conducted a cross-sectional study (survey) of WBV knowledge among members of the American Society of Safety Engineers. A Likert scale (1-none to 5-expert) was used to determine WBV topic knowledge levels (KL(1-5)).

Analysis of 2,764 responses revealed that 69.5% of the participants self-reported a less than basic WBV understanding. The WBV KL(1-5) mean for all participants was 1.94+/-1.00, corresponding to an awareness of WBV without a depth of understanding.

Many at-risk U.S. workers may not be supported by occupational S&H professionals with adequate WBV knowledge.

A significant number of U.S. workers may be exposed to unhealthy levels of whole-body vibration. However, the U.S. occupational safety and health community is generally unprepared to anticipate, monitor, and control the whole-body vibration hazard.