VDTs As Potential Health Hazards: A Critical Analysis.

Sneed, Don

The article critically analyzes efforts toward regulating visual display terminal (VDT) usage. VDT user concerns fall into two categories: ergonomics, or workstation design, and radiation emission. Radiation safety experts hold widely divergent opinions about VDT safety. Some experts contend that VDTs are safe because their radiation emissions fall far below federal and international standards of radiation exposure. While researchers agree that radiation emissions of high frequency ionizing radiation undisputedly damage humans when given at high levels, research is inconclusive on whether the non-ionizing or very low frequency radiation emitted by VDTs is harmful. While proponents and opponents of VDT legislation argue, perhaps the most indicting statement with regard to potential health hazards from VDT radiation emissions is contained in a law review article which catalogues scientific evidence is inconclusive, and then proposes that legislators and policymakers at the federal level should recognize the constraints of the scientific knowledge of potential VDT health hazards and strive to establish health safeguards through legislative action.

VIDEO display terminals; VLF emissions; RADIATION; IONIZING radiation; LEGISLATION; INFORMATION display systems

Newspaper Research Journal, 1985, Vol 6, Issue 4, p66

0739-5329

Academic Journal

10.1177/073953298500600408