Health Effects of Computers

[preacherman481]

Hey all,
Does anyone have any information/thoughts/web links/etc. on the health effects of using computers? I understand computers give off a certain amount of radiation. Are we putting our health at risks by spending hours staring into our CRTs?

[pwaring]

Probably, I've spent about 6 hours on the computer today with only a couple of breaks (due to the way my college timetable works). Staring at the yellow and grey colour scheme of AO probably hasn't done my eyes much good.

[souleman]

humm, you are putting your health at risk on lots of things with your computer. Repetitative Stress Syndrom from your mouse/joystick. Carpel Tunnel Syndrom from your keyboard. Eye Strain Syndrom from your monitor. Etc etc. There is quite a bit out there. Look for things like ergonomics when you search google. I know that a lot of HR (human resources) sites are putting up a lot of information dealing with computer related work injury, because OSHA is starting to hold companies responsible for things like Carpel Tunnel.

[pwaring]

The best thing to do is buy a big monitor (preferably 17"), a flat screen would be even better.

My neck is beginning to get sore now, perhaps I should have a break for a while...

[garathjax]

The wrists, back and neck are the most likely things to be damaged from prolonged use of computers and that is from bad posture while sitting and bad placement of the mouse, keyboard and monitor.

The radiation from monitors is negligible, in fact you would have to be sitting in front of a monitor for 248 years, 24 hours a day, to be subjected to the same radiation that I am from the Chernobyl disaster in a day (in Ireland that is) every day of my life (unless your monitor was built before 1987 in which case it would about 150 years) so unless you have found the secret of eternal youth I wouldn't worry about it (if you have found if please PM me and tell me it ).

[gold eagle]

Garathjax - The emissions from monitors are harmful. However the user is shielded as long as he/she is in front of the monitor. The worst place to be is near the side or rear of a large crt. This issue occurs in star cubes and is of some concern.

[jared_c]

Hmm... I have my pet bearded dragon's tank by the side of my monitor... hope they don't start growing three eyes

I guess I should move them?

[garathjax]

I didn't say they weren't harmful I said they were negligable. Breathing the air in any city is more dangerous than sitting anywhere around a monitor for a long time. All I'm saying is don't worry about it cause if you do worry about everything that could affect your health your life won't be worth living and you might as well go kill yourself and get it over with.

P.s. I did some research on this subject at uni for project and through various experiments myself and my partner discovered that making one phone call (approx. 3 minutes ) on a Nokia 3310 exposes you to the same amount radiation as sitting two feet away from an unshielded CRT for 50 hours or standing in front of an opperating microwave for 7 minutes (again 2 feet away).

[Focmaester]

The problem today is that people tend to buy the cheapest hardware possible, cheap monitor, cheap mouse, cheap keyboard, and most importantly, cheap chairs.
I have paid about $ 500 for just my keyboard and mouse and I have been using them for 2 years at a rate that a normal person would start complaining about rsi. Both are expensive but hey it paid off, ergonomics is important, buy a flat screen instead of those cheap ones and don´t be too picky about input devices.

[Alcatraz]

http://www.safetyoffice.uwaterloo.ca.../ergo/vdt.html