Has safe is your eyesight?

[grain]

I was asked to complete a Health and Safety Risk assessment at my workplace and came across this:

Employer regulations

The law states that an employer must provide or ensure:

 

· screen filters can remove a high percentage of the harmful rays

emitted from a computer screen

· take regular breaks - do not work for more than one hour without a . break

 

BBC.co.uk Implications of Information and Technology/Health & Safety

 

 

 

It would be interesting to hear (read) if anyone else is aware of these regulations and do they follow them. As I am frequently staring at a screen throughout the day. There is also the worrying culture at my work of everyone taking their breaks and lunch at their desk in front of the screen.

 

Has anyone's eyesight deteriorated badly since working at a screen.

 

Do you think CAD operators are more at risk than standard computer operators?

 

I reduce the contrast as low as possible(not too much) ,which helps,

and take regular trips to the plan chest and eat my lunch outside.

 

 

[YZ]

I too get out of the office to eat lunch. Anything to focus on objects further than a metre away!

 

I have not noticed a deterioration in eyesight, but I have only been drafting for four years, and am still under 30. I also have never heard anything about screens needing filters, so I would be interested to learn more about the rays that screens emit.

 

When I have not had enough sleep is when the eyes get noticeably tired and sore. It's mainly muscular, and there are exercises (like moving and holding eyes from side to side, up and down and to the diagonals & also holding both hands in front of you and changing focus from one to the other at different distances and holding for a count of ten) given by my optometrist which really help. I can certainly notice it free up tired and stiff eye muscles.

 

The one thing I do struggle with is getting into a rhythm of consistently doing the exercises and taking the breaks. Not sure how to build that into the daily routine. (I haven't met a supervisor yet who does it or is interested in suggesting staff do).

[dbroada]

I think the filters was more relevant with CRT monitors than it is with LCD. We certainly lost our filters when we went to LCD.

 

I still try the old pilot trick of focusing on something a fair distance away, like a clock, and then focusing on a detail of that clock and then a smaller detail, just to keep the eyes active. However I don't do it a often as I should.

[Geoffers]

grain

i think it is also required, in uk, that employers pay for annual sight tests for relevant occupations, see

www.workingrights.co.uk

 

my wife and i keep on at our designer daughter to get them to pay for her test; they won't, she won't make a fuss:x:x

 

children - huh

employers - huh

[NBC]

I really had to nag my last employer to get a sight test paid for.

In the end it probably cost them more money in discussing it, than it did to pay for the sight test itself !

[Ritch7]

I'm sure it must have effects on the eye for anyone who concentrates on a computer screen for a large amount of time, without regular breaks because the eye was not made to do such thing, Is there any solid evidence that frequent computer work deteriates your eyesight in the long run?

[Organic]

Never heard of these "screen filters" before. IT is logical that the old CRT's would emit the cathode rays though, as does any television with a cathode ray tube. From physics labs, in general you want to be at least a metre away from an unshielded cathode ray discharge tube when in operation.

 

I eat lunch away from the office. Take a break every coupel of hours and get morning/afternoon tea or go the bathroom etc. Constantly talking to coworker and moving around etc.