Similarly, the risk among farm workers from HTV is
unclear. Forestry workers incur substantial exposure to
HTV from chain-saws and the risk of HAVS in this occupation is well established and quantified [44]. Farmers
are exposed to HTV less often, although many undertake
some forestry work, or use powered vibratory tools in
repair and maintenance work on their farms. The risk of
HAVS has not been quantified in this group, but data are
available from the National Survey of Vibration (Table 2).
Clearly, male farm workers can, and quite often do,
incur exposure to HTV that may pose a significant risk
of HAVS, and moderately higher risks of cold-induced
finger blanching and sensorineural symptoms were found
in farm owners, managers and workers from the survey,
with prevalence ratios of 1.2–2.6 in comparison with
unexposed occupationMini-Finland study [65], fibromyalgia was substantially
more common among agricultural workers (1.48%) than
among industrial workers (0.46%), service workers
(0.77%) or white-collar professionals (none of 1596
subjects). The survey also reported a stronger association between fibromyalgia and OA (e.g. OR = 11.4,
95% CI = 6.1–21.3 for knee OA) than that explained
by the relationship of OA with agricultural work.
However, these findings have not been tested so far in
other studies and are currently unexplained.