Eye strain is the sensation of discomfort, fatigue, or pain in the eyes that may result from sustained and uninterrupted focus. The human eye receives light-energy from the environment, focuses that energy, and transforms it into electrical signals that are comprehensible to the brain as vision. Some peoples' vision changes as they grow older, becoming less able to focus on near or far objects, becoming blurrier, or becoming faster to fatigue. The human eye is a combination of muscles, focusing arrays, and an aperture that focuses light onto the back of the eye, which functions in the same way as a solar panel collecting light and transforming it to electricity. While the solar panel converts photonic energy to electricity, the human eye transforms that energy to information.
The muscles of the human eye turn the eye left and right, tilt it up and down, and the muscles within the eye focus the eye on near or far objects, as well as increase or decrease the amount of light reaching the back of the eye. Humans have a median of two eyes, both of which face forward and whose fields of vision overlap. This overlapping of the fields of left and right vision give rise to depth perception, which allows a person to determine if an object is near or far, requiring the focusing and coordinated movement of the eyes. Behind the eyes, the optic nerves, geniculate nuclei, and and occipital lobe of the brain are responsible for processing visual information. From detection to perception, there is an immense amount of information processing and work done to give rise to human vision.
Sustained visual concentration is necessary when dealing with information in front of a worker. Typically this includes information displayed on screens and tablets but can also include information displayed in the environment such as those on speed signs or those nonverbal communications presented by other people in written, facial, and postural information. The eyes are responsible for detecting all of these, throughout the day, and so someone using their eyes continuously may experience strain in the muscles of the eye. Additionally, given that the eyes are located within the human head, fatigue of the eyes may result in a worker repositioning their head forward or backward and adjusting the posture of their shoulders, trunk, or lower body to compensate for this. This may occur in a passive posture such as when a worker sits in an office chair or in more dynamic postures such as where a mechanic may need to focus on valve and cylinder heads, where a dentist may need to focus on dentition, or an artist may need to focus on their content. The comprehensibility of objects in the environment depends on the amount of light that lands on them - their illumination. When doing detailed, fine, or precise work, the object must be more highly illuminated to better appraise the minute variations in form, colour, texture, and composition. Exposure to intense and sustained illumination can give rise to eye strain, such as in welding where ultraviolet light may also affect the eyes. Where the work is sustained, such as in soldering a large board, finishing, or surgery, the combination of intense illumination and sustained work can give rise to muscular symptoms.
Typical problems that arise from eye strain may include headaches, pain in the face, jaw, or high in the neck. Where postures are sustained and the intensity of illumination is significant, postural or ergonomic adaptations may develop strain around and result in discomfort experienced in the shoulders, elbows, hands, as well as the lower back. The intensity of these experienced discomforts may be intensified by a worker's felt or experienced stress, physical wellbeing, and the life a worker lives outside of their work. Workers with long commuting drives, who have poor sleep and environmental illumination, or who relax by playing videogames, reading, or watching television, all experience visual load and may be more predisposed to eye strain.
Each workplace is different, with different demands, methods of business, and is staffed by people whose capacities, needs, and risk profiles are different. Managing ergonomic, environmental, and occupational health and safety challenges requires a business to examine and engage with the ecosystem of factors that give rise to risk, and how that risk may affect people. Each workplace is different and so sometimes the same problem will require different solutions. This applies to workers as well - every person is different and so may require different support, supervision, or resources to perform comfortably and sustainably. Under Work Health and Safety law, consultation with the workforce, the control of risk as far as is reasonably practicable, and the provision of information, training, instruction and support to the worker by the workplace, is essential to meet obligations to provide workers with a workplace that is as free of risk as far is reasonably practicable.
In our capacity as consultants, Atlas Physio will explore and scope the business and its needs, examining how exposures, risks, and processes contribute to the hazard ecosystem, best inform the design and arrangement of procedural, policy-based, and practical risk controls. Our solutions are tailored to the needs of those with whom we work, implemented in a simple, sustainable, and supportive fashion, designed to be robust and resilient, and to support the ongoing life of the business as well as the sustainable wellbeing of the workers who undertake the day to day activities of work.
At Atlas Physio, we provide reporting, structured control, and ongoing management of risk onsite, on the road, and wherever work is done. We are open seven days a week, and are happy to offer a brief complimentary discussion to explore the needs of your business and your workers if you are an employer, and your needs if you are a worker. Reach out today to arrange a discussion and take the first step toward managing risk and working safely, supported by expertise that is practical, reliable, and designed to deliver lasting results.