Copy of UK Statutory Instruments 1999 No. 3242 The Management of H & S
Nigel Dupree
Project Director at S.M.A.R.T. Foundation - also known as: Legin Nyleve, LeginNyleve and @l3gin on other Social Media
"The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999".
This followed the introduction of the 1998 PUWER Act, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, addressing the risk of repetitive stress injuries through Reasonable Adjustments or Accommodations in prevention and mitigation of ergonomically uncomfortable operation of equipment.
However, although one might have imagined "equipment" may have included Display Screen Equipment ergonomics this applied to mainly industrial, construction and factory equipment expediently omitting the increasingly ubiquitous display screen at the time.
Nevertheless, by early 2000's the scale of WRULD's and other MSD's reached the point where the HSE did commission a Meta study into the occupational health of DSE user operators the "Better Display Screen RR 561 published in 2007 noting 58% of operators were reporting suffering debilitating levels of eye-strain with up to 47% experiencing MSK's of one kind or another.
But, accepting in the scientific communities on-going research had identified 'visual repetitive stress' in screen operators under the heading of "Screen Fatigue" a predictable common hazard, if not mitigated, a risk for those spending up to '4' hours a day on standard, out of the box, bright-white screen settings classified as induced "Computer Vision Syndrome", Globally progressive myopic and asthenopic disease.
Discovering those with preexisting visual impairments, Dyslexia or Neurodiverse were at a '4' to '7' fold increased risk of early onset vision stress by comparison with neurotypical DSE user operators tolerating generic screen settings for up to '20' minutes before requiring a visual break viewing something further away than '20' feet for at least '20' seconds, the 20-20-20 occupational health rule, the 2010 Equality Act Sec '20' reinforced the right to make custom "Reasonable Adjustments and/or Accommodations" to prevent or mitigate the predictable visual and physical ergonomic risks linked to over-exposure to DSE use operation.
Of course by 2018 we had an ISO up-date 45001 "Occupational Health Work Exposure Limits" followed by ISO 45003 Mental Health addition along with UK Government and International "Accessibility Regulations" promoting "Colour Contrast Validation" for websites (WCAG 2.1) but, this omitted the "Colour Contrast Calibration" of "Display Screens" now known to be a significant risk to occupation health of user operators whether in education or the workplace effectively expediently ignore known risks !?
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It seams way back in the 1960's the consensus was to ignore contributory environmental factors a little later attributed to ill-health in office workers, SBS (Sick Building Syndrome) research recognising sub-optimal flickering artificial lighting, air-condition and ozone generated from new fangled electronic office equipment as an occupational health hazard.
What is unclear is whether the prolonged periods between awareness of any "foreseeable human risk factor and legislation" depends on legal precedents being set or just the pure volume of injury claims likely to end in precedents being set that would drive up-dating occupational health regulation and the risk of significant financial liabilities for injuries?
I know curiosity killed the cat but, I still remember my Mother articulating her speech well because she grew-up in Preston where the majority of Cotton Mill Workers were deaf and lip-reading was normal having started in the mills as children.
As an adult, like what they say "what goes around comes around" and in the 2011 Appeal Court finding in "Baker -v- Quantum Clothing & Others" the Mill owners, regardless of compliance with basic PPE, were found negligent as, they "should or aught to have known" that the PPE was insufficient and ineffective.
So, curios to know how many DSE user operators are going to suffer occupational vision-loss before the Health and Safety Professionals acknowledge the risks and average 20% lost productivity due to induced visual and physical repetitive stress injuries manifesting in presenteeism?
Maybe some will recognise the potential commercial advantage of recovering 20% or one day a week productivity.