Work environment and health effects of operators at light-on-test process in TFT-LCD plants

Abstract

TFT-LCD (thin film transistor liquid crystal display) industries have been grown-up in Taiwan. Many workers are at light-on test workstations in TFT-LCD factories. At the light-on test station, the operator has been exposed to the lower ambient illumination (105.10 lx) for a long time (12hour/1day). There are few researches discussed about health effect of workers of TFT-LCD workers. The aim of this research is to measure the illumination of the light-on test station and to collect the work environmental data for exposure assessment. The work environment information of test workstations has been measured such as ambient illumination and illumination of the five types of test color of LCD (red, green, blue, white, gray), visual angle, and visual distance between worker and LCD test board. The results shows that: 1) the light-on test was a long-term operation of lower ambient illumination (4.00 lx to 105.1 lx) and shorter visual distance (28.04 cm to 34.43cm); 2) the means of illumination of LCD board of different test color are 10.90 lx in red, 41.20 lx in green, 18.00 lx in blue, 67.301x in white, and 13.80 in gray. Light-on test is a task of low ambient illumination, short visual distance and long-term job in TFT-LCD factories. Some workers complained about visual fatigues. Under this working environment, the more working duration workers have the more visual discomfort they complain. Some administration controls have been suggested such as more time of rest, lubrication of eyes by appropriate solution and job rotation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.