4 - Sunday, June 28, 1992 ~ North Shore News That VDT could be hazardous to your health THE SCOURGE of secondhand smoke may finally be gone from the office environment, b=t look up, office slave, lock into that TV screen ;ou’re sitting beside, and tremble. At the very least you owe it to yourself to experiment with letting your paranoia run free for a few minutes. Supposing you are being zap- ped? The next big white collar workplace health and safety issue will very likely be about video display terminals. A lot of the agitation when the bad news about electromagnetic fields hits the fan is going to manifest itself in the form of lawsuits. You can be forgiven if you didn’t notice when federal Labor Minister Marcel Danis ordered an amendment to the Canada Labour Code, supposedly effective July 1, so that pregnant and nursing women who work on computers are allowed to transfer to a non- computer job. This only applies to women who happen to work for the federal government or any federally-re- guiated industries such as telecommunications, airlines or banks. Other women can apparently stay right where they are in front of their VDTs, thank you. Tres bizzaro, si? Even by Ot- tawa standards. Avnd standards are what it’s ail about. The European Community has moved to bring out new regu- lations on VDT use. The standards now in place were cooked up over a quarter of a century ago — and I mean liter- ally ‘‘cooked.’’ The measurement was based on the microwaves necded to heat up a body part. In other words, microwaves must be kept at a low enough fevel to not actually fry you. Other than that, you're on your own, sister. It was the decision of the Euro- peans to lower the amount of computer radiation to which any- body — never mind just pregnant women -- can be exposed that forced Ottawa to act, if protecting some women while leaving others exposed can truly be called acting. Hal¥-acting is more like it. Stealthily, Ottawa is adjusting the icgislative veil to get itself out of the way of potentiaily mind- boggling compensation payments for damage done to employees. At the root of this manoeuvr- ing, both here and in Europe, are recent studies in Finland, Sweden and Great Britain that showed conclusively that pregnant or nur- sing women who are exposed to more than 20 hours of low-level electromagnetic radiation (EMR) per week have an 80% greater chance of a miscarriage. A survey conducted by Johns Hopkins‘ School of Public Health of 50,000 telephone company ob Hunter | tid STRICTLY PERSONAL workers in New York has also shown that line workers — the ones exposed to the most intense electromagnetic fields — had twice the cancer rate as others, which strongly suggests another correla- tion, Enough anyway so that an in- creasingly vociferous group of scientists is convinced that elec- tromagnetic fields, while not caus- ing cancer themselves, can pro- mote cancer growth or suppress the body's ability to fight the disease in its early stages. Small cancers often occur in the human body but are destroyed by the immune system. Anything that compromises this process has to be viewed as a serious threat. The point here is: employers beware — almost as much as employees. At a seminar on EMR held in Toronto last October, members of the Insurance Institute of Ontario were told by Angus Ross, senior vice-president of the National Reinsurance Co. of Canada, ‘‘If you don’t think we have a future claims problem, we very much do...We, as an industry, are fac- ing challenges of coverage, and we cannot use ignorance as a defence. itis not a defence. **What we are saying is: ‘Ex- posure exists, has existed in the past.’ And, effectively, all radia- tion to which people were exposed in the past is an insurable inci- dent."" He added: *‘Let's, for God’s sake, address the future and, at least, sce if we can limit the risks that will face us in the future. “*Because, if we don't do that, we will have exactly the same problem we have with asbestos, as we will have with general pollu- tion. EMR will be another one along those lines. There will be no limit whatsoever to the number of cases coming through."’ indeed. There are something like 60 million VDTs in use in North American offices, homes and schools. Small wonder com- panies like the Computer Shield Group, distributors of NoRad computer radiation screens, see a fortune lying somewhere ahead for their product, as new regula- tions force companics and indi- viduals to put up barriers against VDT-generated radiation. NoRad vice-president lan Aldwinckle notes that concerns about risks to pregnant women are just part of the problem. In 1991, 14% of all patient visits to see an optometrist were due io computer-related eye dam- age, he claims. “*Nine out of 10 computer users experience eyestrain, eye irritation and focusing difficulties.’’ One would like to be kind, to say that Labor Minister Danis should be praised for at feast 646 Nine out of 10 computer users experience eyestrain, eye irritation and focusing difficulties. 99 — NoRad vice-president lan Aldwinckle half-acting on the issue. But what Ottawa has done is nothing more than apply the same rules that have applied for a long time in Quebec — letting pregnant or nursing women retreat from the VDT. This is an admission that there’s a problem. The next logical step would be to address the problem by doing what the Europeans are 0% OFF PALATIAL TOWELS by DUNDEE BATH G* FACE 3°7 BLUE RIBBON COMFORTERS DOUBLE TWIN 12" QUEEN HAND 57 doing, racheting down the ‘‘ac- ceptable’’ levels of exposure. Instead, we have the Tory fed- eral labor minister promising his business buddies that even with this modest adjustment to the aber code, ‘*We will! not be strict. We'll rely on good faith.”’ Now do you get the feeling you’re being zapped? SAVE 30% OPEN STOCK PERCALE SHEETS TWIN Reg. 15.97 QUEEN DOUBLE Reg. 24.97 Reg. 19.97 4" 13° 4} 47 3°" 8" CASES Reg. 11.97 SAXONY BATHMATS BATHMAT Reg. 18.97 13” PRICES EFFECTIVE JULY 1 TO JULY 5. Visit the Woodwynn Store Nearest You... Woodward's Downtown 684-4967. New Westminster 521-1153. Guildford 584-1018. Lansdowne 270-9683. Coquitlam Centre 464-7539. Metrotawn 433-6327. 1st & Rentrew 253-3437. Willowbrook Mall 533-5200. Raney Piace Mall 467-0899. Park & Tilford Centre 983-2626. Port Alberni 723-1161. Victoria Mayfair 385-1196. Courtenay 338-6533 Seyeneaks 853-5689. Penticton Cherry Lane 493-1900 Kelowna Orchard Park 763-9200. Salman Arm 832-5077. Nelson 352-6515. Trail 364-5644. Chilliwack Southgate Centre 792-5943. Nosthills Mall, Kamloops 554-2900. Ladner Trenant Park Square 946-8486. Nanaimo Wootigrove Centre 330-3301. White Rock 538-3884. CONTGUR LID COVER Reg. 13.97 Reg. 8.47 Qo” Fe? Selection will vary by store.