For many of us, using a PC is as commonplace as tying our shoelaces. But would we torture ourselves trying to squeeze into winkle-pickers or high-heels? Or set upon our feet with a meat tenderiser? No. Yet, while we slip on comfortable shoes, many of us sit at desks that are so ill-designed, a visit to the osteopath or a spot of Deep Heat cream becomes almost inevitable.
In this feature, we'll look at the risks you face from a poor office set up, and how your own working practices can affect your health. We'll examine the worst that can happen, and then find out what scientists are doing to improve matters. But the goal of this piece is self-help. Simply by arranging your desk and working day properly, you'll maintain the body of a gazelle when others are left wincing at the very thought of a day at their keyboard.
So what are the risks?
Back pain affects nearly two out of three adults in Great Britain. It's the number one cause of disability, and it costs industry around 6 billion a year through absenteeism. A sure route to the agony of back pain is a poorly-designed PC workspace.
Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI, is also a growing problem. Although often starting with tingling and numbness in your fingers, hands and arms, it may spread to your neck, shoulders or legs, and can cause severe pain.
High levels of stress have also been attributed to uncomfortable working conditions, while a poorly positioned - or just plain naff - monitor can cause your eyes to suffer. Eye strain causes a plethora of problems from dry eyes to cracking headaches and nausea.
Danger one: Desk and Chair
Unsuitable furniture causes damage to muscles and joints. It can result in severe pain, requiring physiotherapy and drugs.
The secret to a long and comfortable working life is to look after your body. Naturally, your body adopts certain positions when you sit and you shouldn't force or bend it in ways it doesn't want to go. The problem is, many people are rather too accommodating in their sitting position. They accept seemingly minor problems, which, over time, means their bodies adapt into the poor posture encouraged by bad office furniture.
You should never have a rounded back. Instead, your eyes should be level with the top of the monitor and your back straight. If you're very tall, you may need to raise the height of your display.
Face your display straight on, too. Don't have it at the side of your desk, as this will force you to crane your neck. Keep your feet flat on the floor, and don't cross your legs.
Your working area should be well organised o tidy, but with necessary tools close to hand. Your reach only extends between 50 and 70cm, so keep the telephone, stapler and wacky office mascot within this range. Avoid repeated stretching and twisting movements.
Danger two: Typing at your Keyboard
Poor equipment and typing technique can cause repetitive strain injury (RSI), as well as damage to wrists, shoulders and neck.
Many of us spend a great deal of each day tapping away on a keyboard, so it pays to buy a comfortable one. To an extent, what feels right for you is a subjective matter. Try some out.
Opinion in the Buyer office is starkly divided about the split ergonomic keyboards like those from Microsoft, or Logitech's Cordless Desktop Pro. I use one and find it very comfortable. However, other members of the team can't stand them.
Whichever type of keyboard you use, there are some basic rules that'll make your life happier. Firstly, centre the keyboard properly: the spacebar of your keyboard should be in line with the centre of the display.
When typing, your elbows should be in line with your hips. Your forearms should be at right angles to the edge of the desk, and your hands should effectively float above the keyboard. Don't bend your wrists up or down. And make sure you can reach the upper keys without shifting your body.
You should type with a deft, light touch. Just relax. Making a clatter won't get you promoted more quickly.
Avoid resting your palms on any surface. Certainly don't rest them on your wrist rest and use your fingers to dart around the keyboard. That'd be a sure fire way of making your hands ache.
Wrists rests are great as they offer support, and so encourage relaxation. Some people don't find them necessary, though, so don't feel compelled to buy one.
If you do feel they are of benefit, make sure you get one that's the right thickness. Your rest and the lip of your keyboard should be equal in height. If the rest is too shallow, you'll wind up with poor typing posture.
Danger three:Your Monitor
A bad monitor setup can be the cause of headaches and eye strain, as well as causing neck and shoulder problems.
The positioning of your monitor on the desk is key to your comfort and health. As a rule, the display should, when you're sitting correctly, be about your arm's length away. Which, depending on your age and size, equates to between 40 and 70cm. Finally, eyes should be in line with the top of the screen.
Reflections are the enemy of all monitor users. Turn the display on its stand until the majority are eliminated, then sit head-on to the screen.
Most of all, avoid sitting with a window behind you - this causes masses of reflections. It's also inadvisable to sit facing a window. Ideally, your monitor should be at right angles to the room's main light source.
The resolution you're running at is key, too. Resolution refers to the number of dots or 'pixels' that are used to make up the image on screen. It also dictates how much you can squeeze onto your display - the greater the number of pixels, the more icons you can fit. Trouble is, the higher the resolution, the smaller all those icons will be. A resolution of 1024x768 pixels gives you perfectly legible text and icons on a 17in monitor. Any higher, and you'll be left squinting at pin-prick characters.
You should also make sure your monitor is redrawing its picture at least 85 times a second - a so-called 'refresh rate' of 85Hz. Any less, and your eye perceives the picture as flickering - and you wind up with a headache. At frequencies 85Hz and over, your eye believes the picture is stable.
Older graphics cards can struggle to refresh the picture at 85Hz, and poor-quality monitors may produce chaotic images or refuse to work at all. If your set up falls into this camp, pressure your boss into buying new equipment. Your eyes depend on it.
The focus of your monitor is also key. Look closely at characters on the screen, particularly in the extreme corners. Characters in word processed documents should be sharp, without ghosting or blurring. If a monitor's image is fuzzy, your eyes work overtime, and you're left reaching for the Optrex.
Watch out for coloured fringes in the corners of the screen, too. This is called misconvergence, and is caused by the monitor's innards being poorly aligned. This leads the red, green and blue components of the image to begin to seperate.
Assuming your monitor works properly, you can make life for your eyes easy by adjusting the contrast and brightness on your display. Make black as dark as possible - don't accept a muddy grey. Good contrast makes text look sharper and is easier on the eye. A too bright picture, though, can also cause fatigue.
Finally, clean your screen! Beware that some displays are coated with antiglare coatings which can be damaged by caustic chemicals. You won't go wrong with a damp cloth.
It's All Connected!
Don't think for a minute that by buying an expensive desk, a chair with pneumatic lumbar supports, and a mouse designed by Gucci, you're in for a trouble-free life. Even if you buy the best kit in the world, assemble and arrange it wrongly, and you could still face problems.
Good ergonomics doesn't just refer to individual items being comfortably designed. Instead, it's concerned with how all the equipment in the office functions, and how people work with it. Good ergonomics is a total package, covering many seemingly unrelated factors.
* Before you start working at your PC, you should plan your day and workload. Scheduling in breaks is essential - you should take a rest from your monitor every hour without fail. Better still, see if you can plan your day to provide a good mixture of tasks involving different types of movement.
* Many experts recommend doing warm-up exercises before you begin working. Gently working the shoulders, neck, wrists and fingers is said to be particularly beneficial, as these are the joints that are most commonly stressed when typing.
* The climate in which you're working should also be carefully controlled. Studies reveal that the optimum temperature for someone sitting and working is 20-22 degrees Celsius. And make sure you avoid drafts too.
* Think about noise in your office. It's a powerful factor in causing stress, and a calm working environment improves efficiency. Different tasks require different levels of peace and quiet, and background noise can have a cumulative effect. If you're already trying to cope with the collective racket made by PCs, printers and telephones, the plonker in the corner with the CD collection and booming speakers can drive you to distraction. Tell them to buy some headphones, as science is on your side. Noise, but especially unwanted noise is a major contributor to stress.
* Lighting is important, too. There's a lot of science involved in the distribution and types of light in an office. If you're commissioning a new office, it's well worth contacting a building services engineer. In general, though, you should place your monitor at right angles to a window. Avoid sitting with your back to a window, or facing one directly. Both of these seating positions will cause eye-offending reflections.
Author: Martin Cooper
Can PCs Damage Your Health?