V.D.U. health effects

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 32

V.D.U. health effects

NZPA-Reuter Stockholm Video screens are making office-workers unfit, subject to aches and pains, and sudden bouts of sleep, say scientists. Researchers at an international conference entitled “Work With Display Units” said evidence was mounting that most office workers suffered from too little activity. Jorgen Winkler, of Sweden’s Occupational Safety Administration, said an increase in limb fractures in most Western countries in recent years was probably due to declining physical activity. “Computer screen operators who put in many hours doing data entry work often experience swollen feet and stiff necks because they don’t

move about enough,” he said. Office work must be more varied, combining physical and deskbound tasks. Professor Carl Kromer, of the Virginia Institute of Technology in the United States, said a worker who had been working at a screen for an hour "should be told to go and load the printer — anything to get some variety”. Professor Asa Kilborn, a Swedish occupational health specialist, told the 1200 scientists at the conference that many computer users experienced brief “microsleeps”. Such “naps,” lasting a few seconds, were common in other physically undemanding jobs, like driving trains.