Vibrations are the mechanical oscillating movements that are created and emitted by the machines during their work and felt by the employees' body. If the various machines and equipment used in the plants are not properly fixed and balanced, the resulting vibrations are more than they should be. While these vibrations cause noise in the environment, they cause undesirable consequences such as high tension, wear and tear on the machines.

Most of these vibrations that occur during production in the industry are hand and hand fingers and vibrations reaching the arms. The tools that cause vibration are generally stone crushing, asphalt cutting machines, hand-held saws used by foresters, pneumatic hammers used in coal and mines, polishing and grating machines used in workshops and power tools in general.

Essentially, these tools cause vibrations by hitting, turning or working simultaneously. However, road construction, maintenance and repair machines, weaving looms and similar machines affect the whole body in employees.

In this way, employees who are exposed to vibration, whether it is the whole body or only in the hands and arms, may experience fatigue, distraction, disability, occupational accidents, orthopedic disorders and similar physical and psychological disorders. This reduces the performance of employees and negatively affects the quality of life.

Briefly, mechanical vibrations affect workers in two ways:

• Hand and arm vibration: Mechanical vibrations that, when transferred to the hand and arm system, create risks to the health and safety of the employees and cause bone, joint, vessel, nerve and muscle disorders.
• Whole body vibration: Mechanical vibrations that, when transferred to the entire body of employees, pose a risk to the health and safety of employees, causing trauma to the spine or causing discomfort in the lumbar region.

In accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Law enacted in the year 2012, employers are obliged to carry out the necessary measurements, analyzes and assessments regarding the work environment and the risks that employees are exposed to in this environment in terms of occupational health and safety. In accordance with the Regulation on the Protection of Employees from Vibration Risks issued after one year after this law, employers are obliged to carry out risk assessment at the workplace and determine the levels of mechanical vibration to which the employees are exposed, to make measurements if necessary and to determine the values ​​of exposure to mechanical vibration. These measurements are carried out in accordance with the Regulation on Laboratories for Measurement, Testing and Analysis of Occupational Hygiene.

These regulations impose certain obligations on employers. Employees must protect themselves from health and safety risks arising from mechanical vibration in the work environment and take the necessary precautions in this regard. For this purpose, employers have to take vibration measurements, compare the results with the exposure limit values ​​and exposure action values ​​stipulated by the legal regulations and take precautions when necessary.

The following services are provided to the enterprises within the scope of vibration measurements by authorized laboratories:

• Vibration measurement on machine
• Vibration measurement on the person (whole body, hand and arm)

These measurements are based on the following criteria stipulated by legal regulations:

• For hand and arm vibration,
• Daily exposure limit for eight hours of operation, 5 m / s2
• Daily exposure action value for eight hours run time, 2,5 m / s2
• For whole body vibration,
• Daily exposure limit for eight hours of operation, 1,15 m / s2
• Daily exposure action value for eight hours run time, 0,5 m / s2

The laboratories take into account the criteria published by these regulations and the standards published by the Turkish Standards Institute.