I'm confused. Who are these 'girls'? Are the staff members bringing their children into work?

I can't remember the exact science behind this so I'm hoping someone else will. If the photocopier is conected by a hard surface (such as a desk) to a computer monitor, the vibration (even if otherwise unnoticable) can conflict with the refresh rate of the screen which can cause nausea.

I had a similar case to this about 5 years ago, caued by a clip on desk fan mounted on a partition board. you could try changing the screen refresh rate to see if this makes any difference.

We had a similar problem in an office with a photocopier and we spent some time trying to measure levels of volatile components including ozone. We found nothing. We then found a paper published a few years ago in Australia which suggested that copiers and printers can produce significant levels of respirable particles but that there is no way to tell which photocopiers produce this air pollution. In one case identical copiers in different rooms produced different levels of pollution. It seems to relate to things like age, air circulation in rooms etc.
So moving the photocopier out of the room might be a good idea
In our case; the room with the staff all complaining of headaches etc we soon realised that the problem was not the photocopier but the office manager who was a total ****. It was actually a case of ‘Royal Free Disease’- a form of mass hysteria brought on by the stress of working for this particular individual.

I would tend to agree with Ron about the information in the LHC documentation. If we look at it from an epidemiological viewpoint many thousands of copiers and laser printers (which tend to work on a similar principle) are in use worldwide and the reported incidence of genuine health issues is very low. I would be cautious about assuming that it is the copier that is to blame. Having said this, there are situations where real problems can arise.

We investigated a case of facial contact dermatitis due to one person's intensive use of a copier in a small, unventilated room. The problem occurred once each month, always around the same time of the month. The person was found to be allergic to formaldehyde. The release of formaldehyde from the copier paper when this was heated was not normally a problem, but due to the long period spent at the copier once a month the accumulation short term was sufficient to elicit the reaction. It is not uncommon, incidentally, for paper to contain formaldehyde, but normally this is never a problem, even for someone already sensitised, except where some particular condition (such as this one) occurs.

Chris

I must add, the area will be well ventilated :)

No....But sometimes it is good fun! ;-)