Posted By Sean Warburton Hi all, I need to pick your brains on this all. We have quite a large production office, in the office around 8 people can work at a time. Two people are claiming the area is too bright and causing them both headaches, one has a medical condition that they claim is exacerbating a medical condition. We have had assessments carried out on the work stations and measured the lighting, around 400 lux. The problem is others in the office are fine. The individuals have requested tubes be removed from the fittings, but i am concerned about others well being in the office, we have tried diffusers over the lights which have reduced it somewhat, but not enough by their feed back, The office has only artificial light due to the nature of the operation. Any tips guys? Ron if your out there i do need your style of answer on this please :) Sean

Posted By CFT Sean Check the age of the tubes and the quality of the starters initially; two thoughts here that I have are, the tubes are old and are having a very mild stroboscopic effect (almost impossible to measure without equipment) and the other is the tube type, (possible change in product make from normal) try one area with lower wattage daylight tubing and fit new starters at the same time, monitor the result and if it works you have your answer. All the best CFT

Posted By Chris Packham Some years ago I had to work in an office with no natural lighting. Lighting was by fluorescent tubes. I started to develop headaches. When I saw the optician (this was in Germany) he examined my eyes and immediately asked if I worked under fluorescent light. His comment was that he saw a lot of people with the same problem as me. He presecribed slightly tinted lenses and this solved my problem. Chris

Posted By Haggis JM ...and some of us are just photosensitive! I now have the luxury of my own office - lights are off almost permenantly, screen is turned WAAAAAAY down - bliss. Everyone else can't understand how I can see to work though. Have to to say I dread moving back to an open plan office environment. (I've also not had my heater on since I started in Feb last year!)

Posted By Glyn Atkinson I had to change my type of glasses when I started to use pc's on a regular basis. My reactolytes seem to accomodate most lighting conditions now and stop the headaches that I used to suffer quite frequently. I also have a pair that are just for pc use if I am on the machine for long office bound periods (with normal breaks of course!) during a procedure writing stint. Eye tests are the first step, usually.

Posted By Sean Warburton Nop!, CFT i like the obvious, keep them coming wasn't aware of that. Sean

Posted By Ron Hunter There was a quite informative thread on this back in January: http://www.iosh.co.uk/in...iew&forum=1&thread=33790

Posted By CFT http://www.iosh.co.uk/in...iew&forum=1&thread=22263 Was also a good thread if you wanted to explore the neck ache syndrome from wearing varifocals (which is why many opticians only advocate the use of a single lens) and having the screen set high and thus 'possibly' increasing likelihood of aching head; the band is actually not that wide for VF if you are within normal distances. I know I have taken this off track a bit, but every avenue explored is worth the time and effort IMO. And before you ask, yes, I have worn VF's for years and never change them when on the PC; my WS is adjusted to suit the wearing of them. I conducted a survey some while ago on head ache syndrome and have just been reading my summing up on the test subjects, I note that increased physical activity, a walk around the building not taking the lift, getting fresh air, and regular breaks compared to sat on your derrière almost all day showed that the former users hardly suffered any, no matter what the conditions of lighting, which just goes to show that DSE assessments are worth their weight in gold if carried out properly and on a reasonably regular basis. CFT