An estimated 4.4 million workers in Germany are exposed to hand-arm vibrations. Many years of intensive exposure to hand-arm vibration can have chronic effects, i.e. health damage to humans. There are two occupational diseases in Germany that accommodate this damage to health:

• BK 2103 - Illnesses caused by vibrations during work with compressed-air tools or tools and machinery with a similar effect.
• BK 2104 - Circulatory disturbances in hands caused by vibrations.

In the case of BK 2103, work with low-frequency (< 50 Hz) tools and equipment can lead to signs of wear on the surfaces of joints, arthrosis deformans of the hand and particularly the elbow joint as well as ossifications on the sides of the tendon insertions. This affects mainly miners, construction workers and metal workers who have worked for at least two years for five hours a day with road breakers or chisel hammers.

Many years of high-frequency (> 50 Hz) vibration loads on the hand-arm system can lead to the vasospastic syndrome (VVS - often also called the "white-finger illness"), a morphological and functional change to both the vessels as well as the peripheral nervous system caused by the vibrations. The disease is manifested by vasospastic attacks in the fingers. During these attacks the fingers turn white, become numb and cold (Figure 2).