Workplace lighting and illumination are needed to allow a worker to see what they are doing when they are at work. This may seem like a simplistic and otherwise obvious point, but mismatches in the lighting needs imposed by tasks and the lighting available to workers can give rise to visual strain and eye fatigue if lighting is insufficient or to headaches and eye watering if a task is too brightly lit. The human eye receives light from the environment and transforms the light energy it receives into chemical and electrical information used by the brain to make sense of the world around us. Every action done during the day that requires focus, coordination, vision, or management of the environment requires the eyes to focus, track, view, and hold vision. Everything that requires the use of the eyes requires illumination of sufficient balance to make out details - too little and objects and tasks become indistinct. Too much and the details are overwhelmed by lighting and the task becomes impossible. If objects are indifferentiable because of too little contrast then they become muddled and indistinct. If objects are lit with too much contrast it can be painful to focus on them, just imagine driving at night while the car in the opposite lane is running LED high-beams.
Lighting in the environment is provided by active and passive means. Active lighting is provided by powered lighting from bulbs, lamps, and directed lightsources. Passive lighting is provided by the environment, where light from the sun may strike a surface directly and provide illumination on a point or area, or where light from the environment is bounced off objects of different reflectances before being directed into the working area. This is best illustrated by going into an office, turning off the lights, and opening the windows at a time of day. The illumination provided from the outside environment without contribution from indoor lighting is passive lighting. Passive lighting is important to consider because it can be affected by the weather, where cloudier days result in less heavy and more diffuse lighting; by the movement of the sun which will change the angle of lightfall; and by the arrangement and movement of objects in the environment which may cause reflected light to produce distraction and interferential glare. While environmental lighting can be controlled using blinds and shutters, removing environmental lighting can affect worker morale and cause discomfort from that too.
Active lighting includes lighting provided by installed sources of light, or luminaires, like roof lighting as well as that lighting provided by devices and plant. Roof-mounted and area-installed lights are typically arranged during the construction or renovation of a space. This is important to consider when moving into a space or setting up an office, as the area lighting solution used by one business might not be appropriate for the needs of another business. Installed lights provide different intensities of light, in diffuse or flat illumination, across different colours of light, all of which can vary based on the needs of the room, the workforce, or visitors. Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1680 provides recommendations for the illumination of spaces and workplaces based on the precision of tasks being performed, on whether the area is a working, transit, or waiting room, and on the time spent at tasks in different arrangements. The combined effect of constructed area lighting provided from active engineered sources as well as passive lighting provided by the ingress of light from direct sunlight or reflected light should be considered as they all have effects on workers' concentrations, comfort, and participatory capacity throughout the day.
Active lighting can include lighting provided by on-tool or on-instrument lighting or laserguide. Examples of this are the instrument mounted lights used by dental clinicians, the LED lamps underslung on some cordless drills, or axial lasers provided on some shotcrete tubes or impact drills used to assist a worker in aligning the tool they are using. Instrument and tool-mounted lighting is engineered and installed during the ideation and design of the tool itself, with the notion that the arrangement of the light in a tooling context improves the tool's appropriateness for the task at hand. However, using instrument or tool-mounted lighting in already illuminated environments can create point and interferential glare as well as over-expose working areas and materials, resulting in eye strain and potential headache at best or disruption of the task and the introduction of new safety risks at worst. Workers should ideally be able to adjust the lighting they use when completing tasks to balance the effect of environmental, active engineered, and active tool-based lighting to best compliment their existing capacities and so complete the tasks.
Light can be generated by tasks like welding, burning, finishing, and curing, as well as from plant and screens. An example of this is the extremely bright light produced by welding torches, the flashing sparks of electrocuring furnaces, or of grinders. Screens, tablets, and other devices' brightness can be excessive where that brightness is contrastingly intense relative to the environment around them. Given that they eye functions like a camera, wherein the iris, pupil, and lens work together to control the amount of light entering the eye as well as focusing the eye on target objects, intense light exposure can result in eye fatigue if the eye is repeatedly opening and narrowing to control the light exposure as well as focusing on objects. Activities done at night in brightly lit environments like construction sites, offices, and those in aviation as well as astronautic activities expose the eye to this kind of 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.