Prevention

Prevention
 

According to Frank Darby, there are requirements for preventing visual and ocular discomfort: first, get the ergonomics right; second, make sure the person's 'visual apparatus' (eyes plus any glasses needed) is operating correctly; and finally, make sure that periods of work are followed by periods of non-work.

Getting the ergonomics right involves ensuring that the image projected by the computer screen is of good quality, not flickering or otherwise unstable and that there is no glare or reflections on the VDU which makes the image hard to see. It also includes taking steps to ensure that your head is not held still for very long periods of time.

Ensuring 'visual apparatus' is operating correctly means a visit to an optometrist. (Of the three sorts of professionals in this area, opticians optometrists, ophthalmologists, Darby says optometrists are most appropriate because they assess the light-handling qualities of the eyes and also look for disease).

Darby says that the need to break periods from work with periods of non-work was expressed well by the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini, who stated about the problems of sore arms developed by the quill-using scribes and notaries of his day: 'But what troubles these workers the most acutely is the intense and incessant application of the mind, for in work such as this, the whole brain, its nerves and fibres must be kept constantly on the stretch.'

'There is nothing new under the sun,' Darby says. 'VDU use tends to go into prolonged periods of work (without us realising) and after a few hours we suddenly realise we're hurting. If VDU use is intense and prolonged, then wise managers will make sure people have the opportunity to, and do, take adequate breaks.'

Darby says that screen flickering is an issue for the eye comfort of those who work in front of computer screens, but will become less so in future. 'It's still the case that most screens still flicker at 60 hertz a frequency at which most people's vision is affected. At 85 Hz, people are much more likely to avoid discomfort, and computers are moving towards this frequency. The flat panel displays on top of laptops do not flicker at all and have a better resolution, so we are likely to see an decrease in visual discomfort from screen flickering in the future,' Darby says.

Don't waste energy worrying about urban myths related to the risks of computer use. There are enough real risks to worry about. Designing work so that regular breaks are factored in and the ergonomic issues are considered is the best way to tackle the prevalent OHS problem of visual and ocular discomfort caused by screen-based equipment.