Display screen equipment

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (DSE Regulations) lay down minimum health and safety requirements for work with visual display units (VDUs) or display screen equipment (DSE).

The main health concerns surrounding the use of DSE include headaches, eye strain, repetitive strain injuries (RSI), stress and fatigue. In addition, there has been some concern about whether electromagnetic radiation emissions from DSE are harmful, particularly in the early stages of pregnancy.

The regulations cover display screen equipment, microfiches and process control screens. All workstations covered by the regulations must comply with the minimum standards the regulations lay down. Under the DSE Regulations, employers have a duty to assess the risks to a user’s health from DSE workstations and to reduce the risks identified to the lowest level reasonably practicable. Assessments must be kept up to date. If a workstation is shared by more than one user, the assessment must be repeated for each individual. The schedule to the DSE Regulations lays down minimum requirements for workstations and includes details about the display screen, the keyboard, the work desk or surface and the work chair.

A DSE user is defined as “an employee who habitually uses display screen equipment as a significant part of his/her normal work”.

Guidance to the regulations gives the following criteria for users:

• the individual depends on the use of DSE to do the job;

• the individual has no choice on use or non-use of the DSE;

• the individual needs significant training and/or particular skills in the use of DSE;

• the individual normally uses DSE for continuous spells of an hour or more at a time;

• the individual uses DSE in this way more or less daily;

• fast transfer of information between the user and screen is an important requirement of the job; and

• the performance requirements of the system demand high levels of attention and concentration by the user, for example, where the consequences of error may be critical.

If all or most of these criteria are met, the employee is a “user”. Employers must provide adequate health and safety training for users and repeat this on each occasion that the organisation of a workstation is altered. Employers must also provide information about workstation health and safety and how they are complying with the regulations.

Anyone who is a word processing worker, secretary or typist, data input operator, news sub-editor or journalist is included. Also included are workers in telesales, customer complaints, accounts enquiry and directory enquiry operators, as well as air traffic controllers, financial dealers and graphic designers. Other workers who are definitely covered include microelectronic assembly or testing operatives; television editing technicians; security control room operatives and librarians.

The guidance also sets out other jobs that may be covered by the regulations, depending on the nature of the work, including airline check-in staff, receptionists and community care workers. The guidance states that these workers should be assessed, even if DSE work is not a significant proportion of their work.

The guidance highlights three main risks to health from DSE work:

• work-related upper limb disorders, also called repetitive strain injury (RSI), which cause pain in hands, wrists, shoulders, the neck and the back;

• eye and eyesight effects including headaches, sore eyes and blurred vision; and

• stress and physical fatigue.

DSE users must be provided with free eye and eyesight tests on request and with further tests at regular intervals.

HSE guidance to the regulations says that employers should be guided by the clinical judgment of the optometrist or doctor on the regularity of testing. Union advice is to seek agreement for repeat testing at specified intervals, such as two years, or on the advice of the optometrist.

Additional tests must be provided on request for users who experience visual difficulties such as headaches.

Users must be provided with information about their rights to eye and eyesight tests and arrangements for providing the tests. Where the tests show that spectacles are needed for DSE work, they must also be provided free.

Breaks for DSE users

Regulation 4 of the DSE Regulations says the work of DSE users must be planned so that there are periodic breaks or changes of activity to reduce workload at the DSE. HSE guidance to the regulations gives the following advice on breaks:

• breaks should be taken before the onset of fatigue;

• breaks or changes of activity should be included in working time;

• short frequent breaks are more satisfactory than occasional longer breaks. For example, a five to 10-minute break after 50-60 minutes continuous work is likely to be better than a 15-minute break every two hours. The TUC recommends a 15-minute break away from the equipment after 45 minutes’ work.

The guidance says users should be allowed some discretion as to when they take breaks and how tasks are carried out. It also warns employers that break-monitoring software can have negative effects.

The guidance to the regulations also addresses the issue of pregnant women and DSE work. It says that taken as a whole, research has not shown any link between miscarriages or birth defects and work on display screen equipment. It advises, however, that while pregnant women do not need to stop work with VDUs, to avoid problems caused by stress and anxiety, women who are pregnant or planning children and are worried about working with VDUs should be given the opportunity to read the HSE guidance and if they are still concerned, they should have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with someone adequately informed of the current authoritative scientific information and advice.

Rest breaks and monotonous work

Additional protection is provided by Regulation 8 of the Working Time Regulations (see Chapter 9: Hours of work). This says that where the pattern of work puts the health and safety of any worker at risk, especially if work is monotonous or the work rate is predetermined, the employer must ensure workers get adequate rest breaks. This is on top of the basic rest break entitlement under the Working Time Regulations of 20-minutes away from the workstation after working six hours in a day.