Firm behind device helping prevent industrial disease has data validated

● Occupational health experts deem information suitable for risk assessments

An Edinburgh firm that aims to protect workers from one of the most common industrial diseases has hailed the independent validation of data from its technology by a leading occupational health organisation as a “gamechanger”.

Reactec is behind Havwear, a wrist device that launched in 2016 and determines in real time a person’s exposure to vibration during everyday use of power tools.

The firm said Havwear had enjoyed “significant” sales and is used by leading companies and organisations including British Airways, Murphy Group, Morgan Sindall Balfour Beatty, the Environment Agency, and Siemens and Babcock.

The device looks to help cut the risk of developing “incurable and debilitating” hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), also known as vibration white finger, usually caused by the prolonged use of power hand tools. In the UK 300,000 people suffer from the condition.

Reactec said employers are required to risk-assess HAV exposure but tool measurement standards are “intrusive” and impractical, and assessments can be made with unsuitable data.

The tech firm commissioned what it said was a “rigorous” study by the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), to analyse its credibility as a risk-assessment tool and whether the information obtained could support an effective HAV risk-reduction programme.

IOM determined that vibration data readily gathered by the Havwear system provides a useful source of information to inform a “suitable and sufficient” risk-assessment.

Reactec, which is also targeting other industry sectors both in the UK and globally, said the study’s findings give credibility to its belief that the two million real use data records generated by the system “are significant to individual organisations and potentially, in an anonymised aggregated manner, to industry bodies as a means of addressing the risk of developing the incurable and debilitating HAV”.

Reactec chief executive Jacqui Mclaughlin said: “The result of this study is a gamechanger for the industry. These findings are significant, as employers can confidently use Havwear to determine real-time vibration exposure, which will ultimately help them reduce the risk of their workforce.”

Sheila Groat, head of health and safety services at the IOM, said developing innovative measuring devices to assess occupational exposure was a “significant” move.