Skin symptoms and disease during work with visual display terminals

Abstract

A cross-sectional study on 353 routine office workers was performed in order to investigate relationships between skin diseases, signs or reported symptoms and work at visual display terminals. Skin diseases and signs were ascertained by dermatological examination. Skin symptoms as well as details of VDT work and other work conditions were obtained from a questionnaire. Measurements of the physical environment were made at each work place. The results were subjected to a multivariate analysis. There was a tendency for increased occurrence of seborrhoeic eczema, nonspecific erythema and symptoms among VDT compared to non-VDT users. Organizational conditions during VDT work, such as a perceived high work pace or work load, and inability to take rest breaks, were found to be associated with reported skin symptoms and nonspecific erythema. A low relative humidity was associated with a diagnosis of seborrhoeic eczema. No associations were found in this study between current field levels of electric or magnetic fields and skin diseases, signs or reported symptoms.