Safety briefing - display screen equipment

This briefing provides essential information to staff who use computers, tablets and other devices with visual displays.

What’s covered?

The aim of this Safety Briefing - Display Screen Equipment is to ensure that workers understand the health risks of working with computers etc. over prolonged periods of time and how to reduce these risks.

Reasons for concern

If a workstation is not set up correctly, or if mobile devices are used for long periods of time, workers may experience fatigue, eye strain, upper limb problems, back, neck or shoulder pain and headaches.

Control measures

The briefing includes a list of measures which employees can implement for themselves. The idea is to instil good habits so that they are much less likely to suffer from the types of symptom described.

Key points

Attendees must take note of the following key points:

• “Prolonged use of display screen equipment may cause painful upper limb problems and other effects.
• Limit the risks by practicing good techniques, using good posture and varying the type of work you do.
• Make sure you know how to adjust your workstation, obtain help and report ill health symptoms.
• Early reporting of problems will help your employer to resolve the causes before symptoms become more serious.”