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Arsenault publishes article in Navy e-Blast newsletter

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- The March 2017 edition of the Naval Safety Center’s newsletter, e-Blast, included an article by GSA’s own Stephen Arsenault. Arsenault, a supply systems analyst in the Heartland Acquisition Center (HAC), provided the story titled “Joint initiative for ergonomic, lower-vibration tools” -- shown below in its entirety.

Randy Schober, chief of the HAC engineering section, congratulated Arsenault on getting the story published, saying, “your article looks great… nice touch that the link is provided within the article to the GSA Vibration Controlled site.”

Joint initiative for ergonomic, lower-vibration tools

The Department of Defense/Industry Working Group and the General Services Administration, Heartland Acquisition Center (HAC) have been working together to ensure a wide variety of ergonomic, lower-vibration tools are offered to the DoD and government communities.

The group has chosen to focus initially on lower vibration due to the health risks associated with hand-arm vibration. One such risk is hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), previously known as Raynaud syndrome (also called Raynaud's phenomenon), a potentially irreversible disease associated with prolonged and intense exposure to vibration. Tools developed to reduce vibration often bring other desirable performance properties. Longer tool life span as well as greater productivity and efficiency are among these benefits. GSA’s WEBSITE outlines the program details.

This collaboration has also involved liaison with National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), DoD and industry partners through the SAE International EG1-B1 Aerospace Standards committee. The result of this partnership has been the development of AeroSpace Standard AS6228, "Safety Requirements for Procurement, Maintenance and Use of Hand-Held Powered Tools.” This standard provides information on the evaluation, selection criteria, weighting of essential factors and matrices for the purpose of tool selection. The AS6228 has a wide range of potential users from the end user through acquisition and contracting personnel.

For those seeking to extend this type of approach to other areas, a presentation on obtaining best available products through the Federal supply system will be given at the 2017 Joint Safety and Environmental Professional Development Symposium in April.

CONTACTS
Naval Safety Center Liaison Office > mark.geiger1@navy.mil
General Services Administration > stephen.arsenault@gsa.gov

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Last updated: Aug 18, 2020
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