Page 73 - 6848

9 INDUSTRIAL ILLUMINATION

9.1 Importance of Industrial Illumination

Why is good lighting at work important?
Lighting at work is very important to the health and safety of everyone using
the workplace. The quicker and easier it is to see a hazard, the more easily it is
avoided. The types of hazards present at work, therefore, determine the lighting
requirements for safe operation.
Light is an important stimulator of not only eyesight but the entire organism as
well. Poor lighting can not only affect the health of people at work causing symptoms
like eyestrain, migraine, and headaches, but it is also linked to Sick Building
Syndrome in new and refurbished buildings. Symptoms of this include headaches,
lethargy, irritability, and poor concentration. For a human being day and night, light
and darkness determine biorhythm, periods of vivacity and sleep. Thus, lack of
illumination or its excess causes a reduction in central nervous system excitation and,
naturally, reduces the intensity of all vital processes.
Human beings possess an extraordinary capacity to adapt to their environment
and their immediate surroundings. Of all the types of energy that humans can utilize,
light is the most important. Light is a key element in our capacity to see, and it is
necessary to appreciate the form, the colour and the perspective of the objects that
surround us in our daily lives. Most of the information we obtain through our senses
we obtain through sight - close to 90%. Very often, and because we are so used to
having it available, we take it for granted. We should not fail to keep in mind,
however, that aspects of human welfare, like our state of mind or our level of fatigue,
are affected by illumination and the colour of the things that surround us. From the
point of view of safety at work, visual capacity and visual comfort are extraordinarily
important. This is because many accidents are due to, among other reasons,
illumination deficiencies or errors made by the worker because he or she finds it hard
to identify objects or the risks associated with machinery, conveyances, dangerous
containers and so on.
Visual disorders associated with deficiencies in the illumination system are
common in the workplace. Due to the ability of sight to adapt to situations with
deficient lighting, these aspects are sometimes not considered as seriously as they
should be.
Foreign researchers have established that more than 20 % of occupational
accidents are the result of poor illumination.

Lighting hazards
There are several lighting hazards in the workplace which can affect the health
and safety of people. Typical risks from lighting originate from:
 lighting effects;
 incorrect lighting design;
 improper lighting installation, maintenance, replacement, and disposal;
 improper selection of emergency lighting.

4