VDU workstations and vision in post office and bank operators Cheikh El- Bachir Tebboune a * , Bouhafs Mebarki b a Faculté de médecine, Université d’Oran, Algeria. b Faculté des sciences sociales, Université d’Oran, Algeria. Abstract. A cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of 26 VDU operators in a post office and a bank, working regu- larly on video display units. The study aimed at (1) determining the physical working conditions, particularly lighting condi- tions, (2) assessing employees’ complaints, (3) measuring visual defects among operators in VDU workstations. The following results are revealed: (a) ergonomic shortcomings in workplace and work station design were clearly noticed (b) noise level was between 60db and 78 db, (c) illumination parameters did not much the task and caused ocular symptoms and visual fatigue, (d) visual tests revealed vision defects in 84.6% of the cases, (e) visual fatigue was noticed at the end of the working day. The abnormal frequency of operators’ complaints can be explained by the association of visual defects and inadequate working conditions Keywords: VDU; illumination conditions, vision, visual fatigue, visual defects. * Corresponding authors. Emails: btebboune@yahoo.fr , b_mebarki@yahoo.fr 1. Introduction The increase in the use of visual display units (VDU) in different work situations have modified the work tasks and introduced new risks due to ergonom- ic deficiencies in the workplace design and physical conditions in which operators are performing their work activities. The rapid proliferation of computers has lead to large increase in VDU use in both the workplace and at home. In Algeria, VDU workstations were imple- mented in tertiary sector (post offices and banks) in the absence of the required ergonomic recommenda- tions. They experience difficulties of technology transfer to developing countries, particularly un- awareness of the different health hazards among both management and operators a like. Scientific literature unanimously [1, 6, 14, 15] af- firm the use of VDU does not cause health problems by itself, but through inadequate work conditions and ergonomic deficiencies like: physical environment, workstation layouts and work organization. The objectives of the present study were: 1- De- termining the physical working conditions, particular- ly lighting conditions. 2- Assessing employees’ com- plaints. 3- Measuring visual defects among operators of VDU workstations. 2. Method and procedures: A study of illumination, noise and thermal envi- ronment was conducted in eighteen (18) VDU workstations, on a sample of twenty six (26) VDU operators (16 females and 10 males), aged between 24 and 55 years, working regularly at daily rates, ranging from a minimum of 4 hours to a maximum of 8 hours, in a post office and a bank. A questionnaire technique was used to identify: operators and workplace, workplace design, physical working conditions (especially lighting conditions), and workers’ complaints and visual fatigue at the beginning and at the end of the working day. At the same time, appropriate apparatus were used to measure: thermal heat, noise level, and illumina- Work 41 (2012) 3563-3567 DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0635-3563 IOS Press 3563 1051-9815/12/$27.50 © 2012 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved