By Richard Whitehand, December 2001
A piece of software called IPS, used for publication of news articles on the web by newspapers, is widely disliked amongst editors at some newspapers. This is due to its requirement for intensive and repetitive mouse usage with resulting "mouse arm" complaints from some editors. The health and safety officer at one newspaper, Ny Teknik (New Technology), has now formally reported the software to the Swedish Work Environment Inspectorate. (Source: Arbetarskydd nr 7, 2001)
The EC Directive 90/270/EEC states minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment and includes a section relating to software, which states:
The responsibility for ensuring that suitable software is used by employees is thus the responsibility of the employer. However, there are clearly steps that can be taken by software developers in order to ensure that it is possible for employers to choose and implement their software in a way which conforms with the directive.
Such steps should include:
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