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UsefulRest Information
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Current Version: 2.8
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May 27, 2008
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Computer and Health
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Employer regulations
The law states that an employer must:
* Provide tiltable screens
* Provide anti-glare screen filters
* Provide adjustable chairs
* Provide foot supports
* Make sure lighting is suitable
* Make sure workstations are not cramped
* Plan work at a computer so that there are frequent breaks
* Pay for appropriate eye and eyesight tests by an optician
Note:These regulations apply only to offices - not to students or pupils in schools or colleges.
In order to provide the satisfactory equipment for their employees, employers use ergonomics to assist the equipment design process. It is the science concerned with designing safe and comfortable machines for humans. This includes furniture design and the design of parts of the computer like keyboards.
General working environment
Don't forget that rules for all electrical appliances apply in a computer room. This means:
* There should be no trailing wires
* Food and drink should not be placed near a machine
* Electrical sockets must not be overloaded
* There must be adequate space around the machine
* Heating and ventilation must be suitable
* Lighting must be suitable with no glare or reflections
* Benches must be strong enough to support the computers.
Possible dangers and solutions
Within Information Technology it is important that people have an awareness of the various health and safety issues. Steps should also be taken towards preventing common problems rather than trying to cure them at a later date.
Back problems
Many computer users suffer serious back problems. This is probably due to a poor posture or an awkward position while sitting at a computer.
Solutions
A fully adjustable chair should avoid poor posture
Footrests can reduce these problems
Screens should tilt and turn to a position that avoids awkward movements
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is damage to the fingers, wrists and other parts of the body due to repeated movements over a long period of time.
Solution
To prevent RSI, make sure your posture is correct, use wrist rests and have a five-minute break from typing every hour.
Eyestrain
Eyes can become strained after staring at a computer screen for a long time, particularly if working in bad light, in glare or with a flickering screen.
Solutions
Screen filters can remove a high percentage of the harmful rays emitted from a computer screen
Use screens that do not flicker
Take regular breaks - do not work for more than one hour without a break
Lighting must be suitable and blinds fitted to windows to reduce glare
Ozone irritation
Health experts have suggested that ozone emitted from laser printers can lead to breathing problems.
Solution
It is recommended that laser printers should be situated at least one metre away from where people are sitting and there should be good ventilation in the area.
Glossary
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the science concerned with designing safe and comfortable machines for humans. This includes furniture design and the design of parts of the computer like keyboards.
Repetitive Strain Injury
RSI - damage to the fingers,wrists and other parts of the body due to repeated movements over a long period of time.
Health at Work - Physical Health
You don't have to work on a building site for your job to affect your health; even the more sedentary occupations can be a risk.
Conditions such as rsi, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches - and back and eye problems can all be avoided if you're aware of the causes and do your best to minimise them. If you use a computer, the practice of good workstation ergonomics can help.
In this section, we also look at the impact that shift work can have on your physical health - and we include a feature on sick building syndrome.
Back Pain
By Dr Trisha Macnair
Back pain is a fairly universal experience. Some see it as an inevitable legacy of our evolution, the result of turning a body designed to hang from a horizontal spine into a vertical spire, where a carefully balanced mechanism of muscles and joints must support organs and tissues pulling the column of vertebral bones downwards.
Back problems often start at work. Take an office worker who typically spends up to 40 hours a week hunched solid over their desk, nurses who need to frequently lift patients, a taxi driver bent into the driving seat for over 25,000 miles a year, a farmer constantly lifting sacks, seeds and machinery, or a checkout assistant sat on a poorly designed chair at her till all day (57% experience lower back pain each year). Our backs may be put under prolonged strain by our jobs and its hardly surprising that something within the delicate balance of bones and muscles so often fails.
Why do we get back problems at work?
Back problems at work are the result of abnormal strains put on the spine, which lead to damage to the tissues. These strains may be sudden (e.g. lifting a heavy load awkwardly) or chronic (spending hours in a certain posture). The result is traumatised, bruised or inflamed muscles (which may go into spasm), damaged ligaments, misalignment of tiny vertebral joints or damage to the discs between the vertebrae. Sometimes a back problem directly follows an injury but often it appears quite unrelated to any specific event. It can be difficult to establish clearly what damage has been done to the back (back pain is too common to routinely use expensive MRI scans to investigate the problem) but there is no denying the misery of back pain.
Abnormal strains on the back at work are more likely if:
* You are generally unfit - this makes all injuries more likely.
* You are overweight: this puts extra stress on the back.
* Your job involves lifting, bending or moving heavy objects: lifting badly is a very common cause of back problems at work.
* Your job involves being seated in one place for long periods of time. An unchanging posture can put prolonged abnormal tension on the back.
* Your work involves frequent use of a telephone without a headset. 31% of office workers who use a telephone for at least two hours a day and also use a computer have lower back pain.
* There is a high level of stress, anxiety and tension in your job, or at home. This can generally increase muscle tension throughout the body and increase the chances of a sudden sprain.
Reducing the risk to your back
There is a lot you can do to reduce the risk to your back from your job. Your employer should help you - they may be legally obliged to provide training and appropriate equipment for you or give you regular breaks. But it is also in their interests to keep their workforce healthy - its estimated that each year in the UK 180 million working days are lost due to back problems, costing UK business millions of pounds.
One way to tackle the problem is to apply ergonomic principles to adapt the workplace to suit each specific worker, depending on what their job involves and what their physical make up is. See www.spine-health.com/topics/cd/ergo/ergo01.html. Computer ergonomics, for example, will minimize the risk of repetitive injury, neck strain, lower back pain and leg pain.
Computer and Health:
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