Computer overload! - display screens at the workplace

Modern day life is such that our computers have become as familiar to us as our telephones. At work, most of us use them for some, if not all of our tasks, and many people spend the larger part of their working day interacting with their computers.

It is strange to think that we have only to go back 25 years or so to recall a time when computers were much harder to find at the workplace, and they tended to be used only for specialised jobs by 'clever' people! Yet the period between then and now has seen them become an essential tool for the majority of people; for work, recreation, and helping to organise lives!

Many work environments, especially offices, bristle with computers and the paraphernalia that goes with them. One sometimes wonders how human beings fit into this modern environment, yet when we look closer we see them sat behind their screens tapping away at their keyboards, moving their heads up and down to see effects of their labours.

This then is how the IT revolution has transformed our experience of the workplace, so that banks, insurance companies, booking agencies, airlines and other service industries are full of people spending most of their working days behind computer screens. The latest innovation that perhaps takes the use of computers or display screen equipment (DSE) to a new level of intensity, is the call centre.

Picture the scene - banks of desks, housing tens or even hundreds of people taking calls and enquiries, while using computers to find the information they need to deal with them. Organisations have found these call centres to be extremely cost-effective, and that is why they have proliferated.

So with computers having become an indispensable part of most people's work, is there a cost to their health, or even their safety? If there is such a cost, to what extent are employers liable? These are the kinds of questions that inevitably arise from the modern work environment, and which have been the subject of much research and indeed legislation.

DSE and the law

In Malta we have specific regulations relating to DSE, known as the Minimum Health and Safety Requirements for Work with Display Screen Equipment 2002 - Legal Notice 43 of 2002. They are often known as the DSE regulations.

These apply to people defined as DSE 'workers', and the definition broadly includes those who regularly or habitually use DSE, including those who work from a workstation at home. Employers have a number of significant duties under the regulations which include:

• assessing each workstation to take account of the equipment, the work environment, and the interface between the DSE and the worker;

• providing information and training for workers on the risks and precautions associated with DSE;

• planning appropriate work patterns to allow for time away from the DSE;

• providing free eye and eyesight tests before individuals are categorised as DSE workers, and at regular intervals after; and

• providing free corrective appliances, such as spectacles, when necessary.

These regulations also provide an interesting twist on the normal legal procedures. Regulation 12 states that where an alleged offence under the regulations consists of a failure to do something, or to do something so far as is reasonably practicable, it is for the accused to prove that it was not practicable or reasonably practicable to do more than was in fact done.

One might therefore be forgiven for thinking that the accused is considered guilty unless he can prove differently! The maximum fine for a breach of these regulations is Lm5,000. As with most health and safety legislation, the ability to demonstrate compliance depends on the extent to which one is able to provide evidence to the enforcing authority, and this means keeping comprehensive records.

DSE assessments should be written or recorded in some other way, and should address the issues specified in the regulations. Records of training and of the health and safety information provided to workers should also be kept. Many employers are unknowingly breaking the law by, for example, not recording the DSE assessments that they carry out; or indeed by not carrying them out at all! The inability to produce these records hands the enforcement agency an almost unassailable advantage in any prosecution.

What are the health effects of DSE?

Many of the effects on the human body are short term, and include aches and pains in the back, neck, shoulders, arms, fingers and wrists. Repeated exposure to these effects over a long period of time can however lead to more severe consequences that can sometimes prove irreversible.

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is a generic term that has been used to describe some of these conditions which include specific examples such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Prolonged use of display screen equipment can also affect the eyes, causing them to become dry and sore, and concentrating on a screen all day can reduce the extent to which the muscles that control the eyes move, and this can over time, affect the quality of an individual's eyesight. One must also consider the question of mental health and DSE. This may sound far-fetched, but consider the conditions under which the equipment is often used. Many data input operatives, for example, often do little else during an eight-hour day other than input data; they have no control over the pattern of their work, and they work in almost unchanging physical environments. These things can cause boredom and block many of the stimuli that keep the brain active during a normal day, and this may lead to feelings of alienation, depression and stress.

What can be done?

Managing the use of DSE at work need not be a complicated business. All that is usually required is careful thought and planning, with some adjustments to the workstations that people use.

Firstly, staff who use DSE and who can be classified as 'workers' under the legal definition of the term have to be identified. They then need to undergo some simple training to make them aware of the hazards associated with DSE, how to recognise adverse health effects before they become serious, and what precautions should be taken. Next, an assessment of their workstation has to be made, perhaps using one of the many assessment templates that are available, and the assessment must be recorded.

This process may identify some problems associated with the equipment or the work routine, in which case there may need to be some changes made to deal with them. A review date must be built into the DSE assessment so that the situation is regularly monitored.

Supervisors need to check periodically that staff are using any equipment that has been provided to safeguard them, and that they are adopting appropriate work patterns. In these ways employers can begin to feel more reassured that they are doing all that can be reasonably required of them, and their staff will be working more comfortably and be less likely to take time off because of DSE-related issues!

Chris Hudson, BA (Hons), MA, CFIOSH, AIEMA, is director of training and consultancy at the Institute of Health and Safety. Comments on this article and enquiries about any health and safety issue associated with display screen equipment may be sent to chudson@ihs.com.mt.