If you were an employer, would you purposely create a work environment that forced your employees to cope with the glare, stress, eyestrain, headaches, and visual fatigue often found on the job? Of course not! Yet millions of people find themselves working under those very conditions, five days a week!
Glare occurs when light (either from a singular bright light source or from a more diffuse source) scatters across the entire visual field. This scattering of light across the retina's surface often dazzles the sight and greatly reduces the quality of image received by the retina. Glare not only causes your vision to be distorted, it can also be quite painful. Under glare-filled conditions, your eyes are forced to continually attempt to distinguish the glare from the visual tasks. This leads to eyestrain, headaches and general fatigue.
Glare in the visual environment is usually due to an overabundance of light. According to the American Optometric Association, NIOSH, the Illumination Engineering Society (IES), the Human Factors Society, General Electric Corp., and others, the average office environment requires only 20-70 foot-candles (fc) of light in order to perform computer and computer/paper tasks. Yet, in stark contrast, most work sites measure 80-120 fc of light!
While many think of carpal tunnel syndrome as the leading workplace complaint, vision-related problems are reported by 61-80% of those who work on computers for 6 or more hours per day. When we think of stress in the workplace, we are likely to think about deadlines, overbearing supervisors, etc. What we also need to consider is the visual stress we put our eyes through each day. If bright, glary lighting is present we tend to squint our eyes, causing our facial muscles to contract. Over the course of the day, this can lead to a tension headache, eyestrain and visual fatigue.
According to the American Optometric Association, Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is defined as the complex of eye and vision problems related to near work which are experienced during or related to computer use. These symptoms include: headaches, blurred vision, neck pain, fatigue, eyestrain, dry, irritated eyes, and difficulty refocusing the eyes. The majority of video display terminal (VDT) workers (most studies indicate 50-90%) complain of these symptoms during their daily routine.
What is the Solution?
You can take care of the problem at its source by using a NaturaLux™ Filter. When using a NaturaLux™ Prismatic Lens, you not only reduce the over abundance of light to more acceptable levels; you also reduce the veiling reflections from the ceiling area. In an open lighting fixture, such as those found in grocery stores, warehouses, etc., the NaturaLux™ Tube Guards and DirectaLux™ Tube Guards also reduce the volume of light to acceptable levels, while converting the cool white light into color-balanced light.
As you can clearly see, by using NaturaLux™ Filters you can increase productivity and morale while decreasing glare and stress. No matter how you look at it, NaturaLux Filters are good for business!
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