SI, you guessed correctly in that I'm basically a pencil, or paper pusher. Part of my job though, to answer to Steve's enquiries, is to check on the field some characteristics of rigs financed by the state.
The government agency which employs me will pay 65% of the cost of those rigs (with a max support of 150K US$) if the employer can prove a specific working hazard has been improved. In the above cases, whole body vibrations at the driver's seat turned out to be lower in the new rig with respect to the old one, hence the government, thru our technical bureau, approved the funding. I check that things are regular (there are no frauds) and carry out vibration or noise measurements. New rigs turn out to be pretty much comfy.
So help me understand, the italian government will pay 65% of the bill for expensive machinery, if the rig it's replacing has a "health hazard" of whole body vibration? How can that possibly be determined to be too much based on who's body being vibrated? There must be guidelines on how to operate equipment safely, example, you wouldn't want to run a jackhammer for a couple hours straight with no break. Must've been from a complaint or a hospital bill? It just reminds me of how when I worked for the state how cash was being handled.
