Posted By fats van den raad Colleagues An employee in our organisation have been asked to move to a different workstation. The new workstation is clustered with two other workstations so that she will have the back of one VDU and computer behind her (approx 3 feet away) and the back of another workstation to her left (approx 4 feet away). She is concerned about radiation and "other" emissions from these workstations. I don't think there is a problem but she is adament that she wants to something in writing. Any idea where I can get information about this to show her? Any help greatly appreciated Fats

Posted By Adam Jackson From the dusty recesses of my mind, doesn't radiation in CRT monitors and TVs arise from the electron beam which is fired at the screen? If so, sitting behind or to the side of the monitor means she will be out of the path of the beam. I could be wrong on that but I'm fairly sure I remember reading something along those lines once. Also, electrons are stopped by pretty much anything so any energy that does get past the screen (if indeed it does) will then get reduced by the air molecules, clothing and skin so won't enter the body.

Posted By DavidHaddon Nice idea, any suggestion as to where I can obtain a cheap EMF meter?

Posted By J Knight As far as I can remember (which is a steadily diminishing dsitance since my 40th!) the whole radiation and VDU issue was cooked up by a single flawed study which has long since been laid to rest, John

Posted By Mark Talbot http://www.nrpb.org/publ...pb/abstracts/absd5-2.htm The above is a summary of a report on the NRPB site. There is minute levels - far less than background - but it is worth a quick read.

Posted By David J. Hi all. John you will have to stop drinking that "paranoid" vodka. Biggest concern was around pregnant staff and it's possible harmful effects. there is no current evidence to support the fears. Although i have heard that in the early years a gov't department issued pregnant staff working at DSE with "plastic" aprons.. yep very Bizarre. Not sure if it is a true story.. cheers

Posted By Patrick Guyomard A few years ago I got my hands on an emf meter, just out of curiosity I checked the readings around a CRT monitor, I found the reading in front of the monitor to be fairly small (can't remember the numbers) what surprised me was that the numbers shot up at the rear of the monitors, falling away quite quickly with distance. I doubt you've got a problem but the meters and redings falling awaywith distance impressed our admin staff. What a sad bunch we were that day.

Posted By Jonathan Breeze Ha, ha, the man thinks it's all over! Good joke Fats. If you want to demonstrate that you're not just picking & choosing your sources to back your point of view, you could do worse than point to this website: http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/index.cfm?mins=331 Whilst it doesn't lend any credibility to the worst scare stories, the first paragraph has a wonderful hanging sentence about birth defects. It also raises the very real issues of eye strain and work related stress - so you'd better look to your DSE policy to check you have addressed these issues.

Posted By fats van den raad Jon Thanks for that link although in all honesty I don't think I'll be using it. No, not because it suggests that their are problems associated with working with vdu's, but because of the unscientific way it is written and the typical TU scaremongering tactics that it employs. We all know that there are potential health problems such as muskuloskeletal, eye and stress associated with working with vdu's. The way this article is written lumps unsubstantiated inuendo of possible problems in with real accepted (and controllable) problems, thereby suggesting the validity of all claims made. This article makes statements rangeing from true and accepted through supposition to blatant untruths. It has no use to any person seeking real answers.