Are Computers Hazardous to your Health?

Nov 21, 2001 11:45 AM

Dear School Secretary:

The Board of Education’s increasing reliance on technology and computerization has resulted in school secretaries spending many more hours at the keyboard. And many are running into health problems, ranging from headaches, eye strain or blurred vision to pain in the neck, back, shoulder, hand or leg.

After receiving numerous complaints from the members of our School Secretaries Chapter, the union distributed a questionnaire about computer-related health problems at the professional development conference in the fall of 1996. The responses from 201 school secretaries confirmed the severity of the problem. More than 80 percent reported pain in the shoulder, neck, back or thigh. Forty-five percent reported numbness, tingling or burning in the hands or fingers. Seventy percent had vision problems or eye strain and 54 percent had frequent headaches.

We at the United Federation of Teachers are concerned about how this increasing computer work may affect your health, so we’ve produced this booklet to give you practical advice about how to safeguard your health while on the job.

In addition, based on the survey results, we’ve taken the following actions:

• We negotiated a new provision in the 1995-2000 secretary contract (Article 8B) which requires the Board of Education to work with us to set workload standards and to promptly resolve complaints about computer equipment.
• We’ve made progress in working with the board to set standards for equipment purchased for secretarial work stations.
• And we have had significant success in convincing high school and community school district superintendents across the city to provide school secretaries with good, adjustable chairs that are so important in protecting you while you’re working.

Our goal is to ensure that the board provides you with equipment that has been designed to help prevent computer-related injuries.

I hope that you find this booklet of use and, as always, please reach out to the School Secretaries Chapter if you run into problems.

Sincerely,

Randi Weingarten
President