HAVS survey

[Patty Ralrick <pattyralrick@hotmail.com>]

Posting on behalf of Darren Tanke:
Fossil preparation often involves the use of airscribes to remove hard rock. 
This process involves holding a percussive tool which causes vibration and 
which, over time, can have negative health consequences to the hand and arm of 
the user.... The condition,’Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome’ (HAVS) is commonly 
known as ‘White Finger or Dead Finger’ and is well-known in heavy and light 
industry. 
However it does not appear to have been fully addressed as a health and safety 
issue in palaeontology; specifically regarding fossil preparation.
For the upcoming Fossil Preparation & Collections Symposium in Salt Lake City, 
USA, Mark Graham (Natural History Museum, London, England) and Darren Tanke 
(Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, Canada) plan to make a presentation on HAVS 
in the fossil preparation community and we need your help to aquire data on 
which to build our presentation.
 
We have set up an online survey of about 30 questions that deal with your 
awareness of HAVS, safety mitigation practices, and if/how HAVS affects you.
We’re hoping that current and retired fossil preparators (both professional and 
amateur) who’ve used an airscribe will take 5-10 minutes to answer the 
questionnaire. We have tried to make it as anonymous as possible and all data 
will be collectively used in the presentation, via graphs and pie charts. The 
results may also be published.
Thanks in advance for your help. 
The survey can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/vibrationsyndrome
Thanks everyone!
Patty
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Patty Ralrick, MSc
Drumheller, AB, Canada
"Talking isn't something you can do judiciously unless you keep in practice." - 
Mr. Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) in "Maltese Falcon"