A discussion is presented of some of the vascular-muscular disorders associated with hand-arm vibration and of some of the proposed hand vibration standards aimed at preventing them. The results from an investigation examining the vibration characteristics of the hand being conducted by the authors are presented. These results indicate the hand is highly damped. The implications of the presence of this high damping in the hand and fingers are discussed and an attempt is made to explain how the mechanisms in the hand and fingers associated with this damping may possibly interact to cause a destructive vascular-muscular disorder called Raynaud's phenomenon.