Screen Fatigue
A survey conducted by The Eyecare Trust reveals that the average person will spend 128,780 hours in their working life staring at a screen. 63 per cent of those surveyed said they regularly leave work with a headache and 53 per cent suffer from tired or strained eyes.
The Eyecare Trust offers the following tips to workers to minimise the symptoms of screen fatigue:
- take frequent breaks – give your eyes a rest every 20 minutes or so;
- ensure your monitor is 33 – 59cm from your eyes and that the centre of the screen is 10 – 15cm below your natural eye level. Select a font size of 12 pts or above and make sure your screen is clean;
- position copy documents at roughly the same distance from your eyes as the screen to avoid having to refocus. Dim the lights (the ratio of ambient light to monitor light should be 3:1) and minimise any glare or reflections; and
- keep blinking. When you concentrate on the screen for long periods your blink rate decreases.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations require employers to plan the activities of screen users so that their work is periodically interrupted by breaks or changes of activity and they also require employers to arrange appropriate eye and eyesight tests on request. The Health and Safety Executive has useful guidance, ‘Working with VDUs’, available on the HSE website.
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Suzanne
Brookes
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The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article.
