Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)RegulationsPhysical Agents Regulations, 202413. Vibration |
| (1) | The employer or self-employed person must ensure that hand-arm vibration or whole-body vibration is eliminated at the source, where reasonably practicable. |
| (2) | Where the provision of subregulation (1) is not reasonably practicable and exposure is at or above the action level for hand-arm vibration or whole-body vibration as stipulated in Table 1, the employer or self-employed person must, as a minimum— |
| (a) | identify the reason why the action level was reached; and |
| (b) | review control measures to prevent the OEL from being reached. |
| (3) | Where the provision of subregulation (1) is not reasonably practicable and exposure is at or above the OEL for hand-arm vibration or whole-body vibration as stipulated in Table 1, the employer or self-employed person must, as a minimum— |
| (a) | implement alternative working methods to reduce exposure to vibration; |
| (b) | install plant and machinery designed to produce the least possible vibration; |
| (c) | implement maintenance programmes for plant and machinery, the workplace and workplace systems; |
| (d) | review the design and layout of workplaces, workstations and rest facilities; |
| (e) | review the— |
| (i) | physical agent exposure risk assessment; |
| (ii) | physical agent exposure monitoring programme; |
| (iii) | medical screening; |
| (iv) | medical surveillance; and |
| (v) | control measures; |
| (f) | limit the duration and magnitude of exposure to vibration; and |
| (g) | provide personal protective clothing to protect employees from cold and damp. |
| (4) | The physical agent exposure monitoring must— |
| (a) | for whole-body vibration, be conducted in accordance with SANS 2631; |
| (b) | for hand-arm vibration, in order to be representative of an employee’s exposure— |
| (i) | be conducted along the axes for pitch, yaw and roll; |
| (ii) | be a minimum of one exposure cycle, normalised to an 8-hour time-weighted average: Provided that in the event of multiple sources of vibration, the partial exposure values are combined and normalised to an 8-hour time-weighted average; |
| (iii) | in the case of plant or machinery which need to be held with both hands, be conducted on each hand, whereby the exposure is determined by reference to the higher value of the two; |
| (iv) | be conducted during the coldest period of an employee’s shift; and |
| (v) | be conducted during the coldest quarter of the year as determined by the physical agent exposure risk assessment. |