ABSTRACT
There are some 8 million workers1 in the U.S. exposed to occupational whole-body vibration (WBV) or hand-arm vibration (HAV) with resulting severe medical consequences of WBV or HAV exposures. The ability to measure, quantify, and evaluate the vibration impinging on the human body and relating these results to the disease processes it produces is essential to understanding both dose-response relationships and methods for controlling human vibration exposure. The purpose of this chapter is thus threefold: (1) to provide an introduction to the occupational vibration measurement process; (2) to provide a basic understanding of the occupational WBV and HAV health and safety standards/guides currently in use in the U.S.; and (3) to demonstrate the interrelationships between these measurements and their respective WBV and HAV standards/guides.
