Lighting levels at work

[SAS]

I work in a data entry centre, with over 800 PCs and employees on my shift. The light levels in my work place are all interlinked, and in general appear ok. I get to walk around the whole place through the day (I'm a trainer) and I can't see any difference from one end of the building to the next, however some teams are complaining. The result is them reduing the light levels to near darkness in their area, making the building patchy in places.

I've noticed on the sickness list eye strain is becoming more frequent, yet noone seems to see the link. I've pointed it out, yet I'm given a blank look. Is there any laws on lighting levels or a health and safety clause which outlines details about lighting levels?

 

[Collino]

should think there is a Health and Saftey reg for that.

have a look @
http://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/

 

[Dax]

I bet there is something horribly vague like:

It is the employers responsability to ensure that all employees have sufficient lighting to carry out their duties at all times.

 

[TdC]

in Holland you're not allowed to work in a place that doesn't have a window or skylight. sunlight must reach your workplace. not much help, I know

 

[Chilly]

in Holland you're not allowed to work in a place that doesn't have a window or skylight. sunlight must reach your workplace. not much help, I know

What if you work in a camera film developing suite?

 

[TdC]

ahah smartypants

 

[GekuL]

I don't understand, why would they want it dark? :/

 

[Cyradix]

I think some regulation says there needs to be 350+ lux or something on the workplace.
We had a team measuring it here after complaints.
Result : they cut down the tree in front of the window….

 

[Tom]

I suggest you walk around the dark areas, and 'trip' over a cable. Then report it as an accident. If enough of that thing happens, they will increase the lighting level. Looking at VDU screens in the dark is definitely not good for the eyesight.

 

[SAS]

Tom that would work. It's a shame something has to happen being people think "oh shit need to put XX in place to stop it happening again".

 

[Insane]

Tom that would work. It's a shame something has to happen being people think "oh shit need to put XX in place to stop it happening again".

*pushes SAS down darkened stairwell*

oh shit, need to put a new lightbulb in place to stop it happening again...

 

[TdC]

*trip over SAS at bottom of dark stairwell*
*spill hot coffee on SAS's groin*

*sue company, sue SAS, sue Starbucks*

 

[Insane]

its a pure hotbed of litigation today!

*waits for P45*

i worked in a call centre recently, from what i remember there really wasnt anything mentioned in the HSE briefings except that if the lights were too bright you could get a few starters removed from the lights to dim it down.

ask your employer to go through a DSE examination with yourself, then they have to act on them quickly and efficently.

 

[SAS]

You missed the bit where I take my shoe off and after I've had a big pay out for the accident and give you the shoeing of your life Insane .

Cheers Collino for the linkage. I've emailed someone from that site, for advice.

 

[Insane]

i doubt your size 9 feet can hurt me! MuHaHaHaHa *cough* *splutter* *eerk*

*dies*

dawm cold

 

[SAS]

DSE examination?

 

[Insane]

Display Screen Equipment. (i think)

its a quick checklist that H&S goes through with anyone who uses a computer for prolonged periods of time to ensure they are sitting at the right posture, angle and stuff so theres less chance of strain, pain and annoyance.

PDF file about DSE:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf

 

[PR.]

There is two people in the little room including me the roof has lots of those quad flurescent tubes with a 32 in total, right now only 2 of them are working, shut the window shutters and I am sitting in the dark.

I know this sounds a bit sad, but when you are as bored as I am counting things does pass the time

 

[Paradroid]

In my work we have a Health & Safety officer who conducts Workstation Assessments - which includes light levels (you can do official certified courses for this)...our building has autosensors and increases/deceases light levels depending on the light coming in from the outside...

I'm a trainer too, and you do notice these things on your travels. Just last week I was sittiing down to help someone backup their email, and I noticed their whole screen was blurry....the girl wore glasses and just thought it was her eyesight! (for 4 months she's been sitting there - probably getting headaches). Alas, there were no settings available on the monitor - we have a problem with the power supply interfering with the displays on that side of our building, so she'll have to move seats until we can get her a nice new flatscreen.


Back to the topic....why do they need it so bright? To read paperwork (and not the computer screens)? Maybe the high contrast of the monitors is saturating their eyes - which makes hardcopies look dull(?) I've put a darker colour for the window background - I hate spending hours typing at a black'n'white screen (eases my eye strain anyway!)...

 

[SAS]

Although the lighting is bright, it's designed I think to keep us all awake. After all keying thousands items of mail an hour is dull. However the lighting is control automatically, and we have one remote for it.

On the different shifts (early 6am-2pm), (late 2pm-10pm, which I work), nights (10pm-6am), the lighting levels are manually changed. If there's no activitey over 10 minutes the lights switch off, and upon detecting movement light up BUT at this point they have reset to their orginal values cause the remote to come out again and the cycle continues .

I don't have a problem with lower light levels but pitch black? I always thought you had to have a light source nearby when using a PC? :/

 

[Athan]

I suggest you walk around the dark areas, and 'trip' over a cable. Then report it as an accident. If enough of that thing happens, they will increase the lighting level. Looking at VDU screens in the dark is definitely not good for the eyesight.

Strange that, I've had no problems with looking at VDUs in low lighting situations for, well, decades now. On the other hand, any amount of reflections on the monitor due to higher lighting levels and my eyes REALLY start to complain (due to getting confused as to which image they should focus on I assume).

I regularly don't switch the light on here at home until I go to bed as i can cope perfectly well in the dark with just the glow of the monitors to see by. If I have the light on there's all those horrible reflections.

Oh, and I also prefer black backgrounds with white/grey text (true white would be bold text).

-Ath