Health Consequences of CRT Monitors? 306
DigiMan asks: "I was wondering, what are the effects of working on a CRT are on your health - long term. It has recently bothered me that EVERYONE seems to be switching to LCD's - I noticed that Bill Gates was one of the 1st people to do this, even when the cost was super high, and many, many government offices switched to the much more expensive LCD's - despite budget cuts and having to go with the lowest bidder strategy they operate under. Was this ONLY for style and space savings? Is there some health consequence that no one talks about publically. I know that they do emit very low amounts of X-Rays and have a 60Hz magnetic field as well as a 12.5 kHz electro magnetic field (for the raster scan). I work in front of typically 3, 19" CRT's for 12 - 16 hours per day at an average distance of 18". Can these magnetic fields cause Leukemia, or anything else? Is being behind the a cathode ray tube that bad for you?"
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Even Bill Gates? (Score:4, Insightful)
scientific tests? (Score:5, Insightful)
doctors say to take breaks, when doing lots of reading, be it lcd/crt/book/newspaper anyways...
Re:Bad for your eyes (Score:4, Insightful)
I am running 1280x1024 res at 75Hz using a 5 year old video card and monitor.
Re:Probably bad for eyesight. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the "healthiness" of the LCD screens as opposed to the CRT screens has to do with the flicker. On an LCD the pixels don't fade, so there's not that pulsing and required brightness as there is with a CRT display. Ask anyone who has discovered their HZ setting on their monitor drivers and pressed the HZ from 60 to 75 what effect the flicker has on eyesight problems with CRTs. Some people can't even look at a 60hz screen for longer than a minute without it hurting their eyes. Think of a CRT as a finely tuned array of strobe lights and you'll understand why LCDs are better on the eyes.
The real reason: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More than just extra space. (Score:4, Insightful)
And you see the image on the monitor how?
What has worked for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
2) Use the best CRT monitor you can get your hands on. I've noticed that my eyestrain actually goes up working on my laptop versus my CRT (a 22" NEC MultiSync FP-series set to the highest possible resolution and very tiny fonts). It's one of those things you have to try for a few days before you realize how nice it is.
Re:Everything causes cancer (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't worry, you'll probably die of a heart attack long before the leukemia kills you.