Evaluation of work station design tactors in VDT operations.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cohen, Barbara G. ; Smith, Michael J. ; Stammerjohn LW Jr.
• Description:
  Video display terminal (VDT) work station design factors were studied. An ergonomic evaluation was conducted on 53 VDT work stations at five sites. Types of data collected from the work stations were measurement of illumination and luminance, physical dimensions, and special features. A sample of employees at each site as given a questionnaire rating work station design and somatic complaints. Illumination concentrations at the majority of work stations were between 500 and 700 lux. Potential discomfort glare sources were observed at 46 out of 53 work stations. Of the 53 stations, 17 percent had reflected glare concentrations which made reading from the screen difficult. Although viewing distances were acceptable (450 to 700 millimeter), many of the viewing angles were longer than recommended and keyboard heights were excessive. Questionnaire responses showed that 80 percent of the VDT operators reported glare and 44 percent reported shadows cast by background lighting. The most frequent complaints were screen glare (85 percent), character brightness (70 percent), readability (69 percent), flicker (68 percent), and screen brightness (62 percent). The authors conclude that glare, screen luminance, and readability were detrimental to VDT operators and that physical work station design was less than optimal (keyboard height, screen position, chair design). The authors recommend that future evaluations of VDT work places include measurements of illumination concentrations, glare, screen flicker, background, character brightness, readability, work station dimensions, noise concentrations and an analysis of VDT tasks. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ergonomics Lighting Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Health-surveys Human-factors-engineering Light-properties Light-source Lighting-systems NIOSH-Author Physical-properties
• ISSN:
  0018-7208
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DBBS - Division of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  401-412
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00122118
• Citation:
  Hum Factors 1981 Aug; 23(4):401-412
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1981
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Human Factors
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3bd4438829b23134d22a192bd093d73a797454db3ce248fa538a55062d06ad7e666e3b4acc2a6a38b588c499087efc4b8bfe38105855c0b8e339fe289dd84c12
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/184538/cdc_184538_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 817.35 KB ]