The occupational safety and health effects associated with reduced levels of illumination, proceedings of a symposium, July 11-12, 1974, Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHEW (NIOSH) Publication No. 75-142, 1975 Mar; :73-86
Link
NIOSHTIC No.
00168707
Abstract
The possible effects of reduced levels of illumination on the safety and health of workers were examined with emphasis on the illumination levels specified by the American National Standard Practice for Industrial Lighting (ANSI) A11.1-1973, which requires one half to one footcandle for areas of slight hazard and 2 to 5 footcandles for high hazard areas. According to the standard, any factor that aids vision helps the workers detect the potential cause of an accident and correct it. However, the many other variables that affect visual effectiveness, in addition to the level of illumination, such as glare, shadows and visual fatigue delay the adaptation of the eye and result in occupational injuries. Low lighting levels may be a cause of injury after prolonged work. Improvements in the rate of injury have been recorded when the level of illumination in industrial settings for some tasks was raised from a minimum of 5 footcandles to 20 footcandles. According to the estimates compiled by the National Safety Council insufficient lighting was the cause of 5 percent of all industrial accidents in the United States; furthermore, poor lighting and eye fatigue were involved to some degree in 20 percent of the accidents. Instances where the rates of injury were reduced by improving illumination and color were reported. Significant correlations were established between task performance and the levels of illumination. The authors conclude that while illumination affects the health and safety of workers, safe illumination levels appear to be within the visual acuity requirements for task performance.
The occupational safety and health effects associated with reduced levels of illumination, proceedings of a symposium, July 11-12, 1974, Cincinnati, Ohio
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.