| Health and safety issues for I.T users | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Repeitive strain injury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| As more and more work, education and recreation involves computers everyone needs to be aware of the hazard of repetitive strain injury to the hands and arms resulting from the use of a computer keyboards and mouse. This can be a serious and very painful condition that is far easier to prevent than to cure once contracted, andcan occur even in young physically fit indivuduals. It is not uncommon for people to have to leave computer-dependent careers as a result, or even to be permanently disabled and unable to perform tasks such as driving or dressing themselves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eye Strain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Eye strain is the most common health and safety problem with I.T users today. To prevent this happening users are warned to limit time on computer, or use anti glare screen's. Ciliary Muscle Change the shape of the lens to focus the eye. Viewing close up for long periods of time fatigues these muscles. Iris Muscles Adjust the size of the pupil to varying light intensities. Looking at something bright and then something dark stresses this muscle group. Oculomotor Muscles Move the eyes from side to side and up and down. Constantly looking from your paper up to the screen can strain these muscles. 7.4.2. Causes of Eyestrain Poorly Designed VDT Machine Character Size: Small VDT screens and reduced character size make the letters hard to read and increases the strain on the eye. Dot Matrix: The number of dots per character determines the sharpness of the image. Too few dots may make the image fuzzy and hard to read. Flicker Effect: The image on the screen fades rapidly and must be "refreshed". If the refresh rate is less than 60 times per second (60 Hertz), the operator may see a visible flicker of the characters. Flicker contributes to visual fatigue. Poorly Designed Lighting and Work Space: Excessive lighting: The level of lighting required for regular paperwork is quite different from that required for VDT work. Most offices are to brightly lit for VDT viewing making characters hard to distinguish and placing strain on the eyes from constant re-focusing from light to dark. Glare: Glare can come from windows, indoor light and reflective surfaces. Direct glare is caused when light shines directly onto the screen or into the operators' eyes. Indirect glare occurs when light bounces off shiny surfaces onto the screen. When general room brightness levels are high there may be problems with contrast glare, whereby the operator's eyes adjust to brighter total light making images on the screen seem dimmer. Glare descreases character legibility and may cause neck and back strain as workers contort their bodies to avoid glare spots on the screen. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| fire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Computers are probably the best thing that has happened to the work place, but they also have their faults because they generate so much power they are going to be a hazard. They are a hazard because if a short circuit occurs or overloading memory it can cause fire which is a serious danger | Other dangers with computer health and safety could be radiation, this hazard has not been fully realised by most people but it is a majoir danger.
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