Fundamental Study of Vibrotactile Perception Threshold on Japanese-Effectiveness of New Equipment to Diagnose Workers Exposed to Hand-Transmitted Vibration

The Japanese government recently adopted international standard ISO 13091-1:2001, and a new vibrotactile perception threshold (VPT) measurement equipment based the ISO standard has been produced. However, Japanese data measured by the new machine has never been reported. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the new equipment by: 1) collecting data from Japanese workers having exposure to hand-arm vibration; 2) comparing VPTs of HAVS free workers with those of contained in ISO 13091-2:2003, and; 3) comparing VPTs between persons with and without HAVS for Japanese workers.