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BEATING
A CASE OF THE VODS
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Negative
ions may be an answer to the video blahs!!
Workplaces
where video display terminals are used are subject to contamination with
discomforting positive ions, according to a consultant to the Food and Drug
Administration.
A case of the blahs at work may really be a case of the "VODS."
VODS
stands for Video Operator Distress Syndrome, and the
troublesome malady is not uncommon among the millions of workers who use
computer video display terminals.
Charles
Wallach, consultant to the Food and Drug Administration on the effects of
working with electronic video equipment, told reporters in the San Mateo County
Hall of Justice and Records pressroom how to beat a case of the VODS.
Wallach,
64, works in Washington, D.C. He
has served as a consultant to many government agencies and industries to create
a more healthy indoor working environment.
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The
cause of the VODS, Wallach said, is a high electrostatic charge generated on the
face of a video screen¡¦s cathode ray tube. Government standards protect the
intrinsic safety of cathode ray tubes. Wallach said, but the VODS nevertheless
still can do bodily harm.
"This
charge, which may quickly reach many thousands of volts when the tube is
energized, is not in itself a hazard. The tube merely creates the hazard within
the foot or so of air space between itself and the operator¡¦s face,"
Wallach said.
Those
who work too close to the face of a cathode ray tube or who work before a
terminal for too long a time typically experience increased fatigue levels, eye
strain, blurred vision, skin rash, headaches, back pains, irritability, anxiety,
depression, an d general apathy.
While
the cause of these symptoms may also be a depleted bank account, domestic
troubles or a tyrannical boss, they can be caused by the computer terminal,
Wallach said.
The
culprits that cause the VODS are positive ions or charged molecules of air,
created at the face of the video display terminal.
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What
are needed in the workplace, Wallace explained, are negative ions. In
contrast to positive ions, negatively charged molecules of air, or negative
ions, promote a sense of well-being for people.
Negative
ions are typically found in the natural environment at the seashore, near
waterfalls and in pine forest, Wallach explained. "Every
place people like to be is rich in negative ions."
Video
display terminal operators need their negative ions.
"In
weighing the evidence, I am convinced that the aero-electrostatic qualities of
an indoor environment are the most significant single factor in the control of
unavoidable indoor air pollution," Wallach
said.
Most
commonly, offices need to install equipment to generate negative ions in the air
above the video terminal operators. The devices typically look like small
bristle brushes used to clean glasses or test tubes. They are suspended from the
ceiling at the end of long rods.
At
the northern Santa Clara County Communications center in Palo Alto City Hall,
negative ion generators were installed on the ceiling over the dispatchers about
a year and a half ago.
Cliff
Almeida, operations manager at the communications center, said Monday that the
ionizers have definitely filtered out pipe and cigarette smoke.
But
he declined to speculate whether the ionizers created a better working
environment with less stress.
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Source:
Beating a Case of the VODS:
Negative Ions Maybe an Answer to the Video Blahs
The Peninsula Times Tribune, Redwood City, CA
Author:
William Johnson