Posted By John Ridd
This problem is becoming more common as the versitility of laptops is increasingly recognised; however, as you have identified their prolonged use is potentially a problem for many workers.

You have registered your concern and management, with that knowledge, have made their decision - I suggest that you show the senior person in your organisation who has responsibility for health and safety, the relevant parts of the DSE regs and Guidance and ask them to confirm in writing their reasons for taking the action they have - easy for me to suggest, and less easy to do, I know; but at least that would ensure they have properly considered the potential consequencies - not just for the workers but also in relation their to their possible breach of duty.

The proposed revised guidance to the DSE Regs (currently under discussion) suggests that lap tops are excluded from the Regs ONLY if they are NOT in prolonged use. Prolonged use is described much as it is currently and continuous or near-continuous use of an hour or more is, I believe, considered to be 'prolonged'.

Your Company's proposed level of laptop use therefore brings them within the scope of the Regs, and employers should therefore ensure that such work is assessed and that reasonably practicable measures are taken to control any risks identified in that assessment.

Posted By John Murphy
See report Health and safety of portable
display screen equipment Prepared by:
T. Heasman, A. Brooks, T. Stewart. Can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/re...rr_pdf/2000/crr00304.pdf

John

Posted By sylvia
Agree with above responses - but on a practical note. Depending on the conditions of use, laptops can be adapted by a simple device from Osmond Group (01202 773377 www.ergonomics.co.uk) to hold the laptop almost upright to achieve quite a good screen position, WITH an external keyboard of course. This option is far cheaper / simpler than a separate monitor, keyboard plus docking station. The other advantage is it's spaceworthy - my company has folk working at home, and although willing to provide the external extras, people weren't keen as they didn't have desk / storage space.
Of course, it does depend on the main use, there may still be people (like me at home) who would benefit (after analysis of workstation / work) from the full set-up. But I still have the fold-up stand and mini keyboard to take on the road for use away from home.
Have a look at the Osmond stuff - well worth seeing - no I don't work for them! They also do one of THE most useful bits of kit for DSE set-ups - bookrests for between keyboard and monitor. Perfick.

Posted By Brian Dawson
Andy you wrote, "Unfortunatly a laptop does not come under the DSE Regs. - - ". It does if the "user" meets the criteria. It can't meet all of the min requirements without additional equipment like that referred to above but the assessment should identify what control measures are necessary and the applicability of the min requiremnts depending on circumstances of use and inherent characteristics of task.

Posted By Shaun Deely
Ian,

A long time since you posted but hopefully .....
An alternative that is more cost effective than the full blown docking station is to suggest that monitors, keyboards and mice are provided at a laptop users workstation. This may or may not allow access to printers etc depending on the particular laptop being used but ...if using a laptop then printers aren't normally included However, given the advances in technology Im sure that this is not an insurmountable issue