The typical recommendation is 500 lx levels for office environments but a challenge has been issued to regulatory bodies that specify levels of light required for various commercial offices and to reconsider current specifications given the broad range of age in the workplace. Within offices, it is said, that the 500lx level is in fact insufficient for workers aged 45 and over.
The current 500lx office lighting is specified for workers reading and typing documents by the European lighting standard — EN12464 -1: 2011 “Light & Lighting — Light of work places — Part 1: Indoor work places” The OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) recommends 50 fc or even 70 fc for those workers using LCDs in its own lighting standards.
The office lighting levels mentioned above it seems, may be sufficient for younger workers but not for the older worker. During research it was noted that a deterioration of near sight vision typically begins at 45 and a 60 year old worker may need as much as 5 times as much light.
Workers are often off work sick with headaches and fatigue, as much as these symptoms may have underlying causes they could be the result of prolonged eye-strain due to inappropriate lighting conditions within in their work place.
The challenge to the regulatory bodies isn’t to increase the recommended office lighting levels throughout premises but to consider that employees should be in control of their own lighting conditions i.e table lamps. After a study was conducted in 2013 where employees were privy to a desk lamp it found that 90% of these workers reported sharper vision and improved comfort with a lamp.
Workers involved with intense focus should be working with a 1000lx and workers in creative environments are apparently more productive in low level lighting environments, meaning that your office lighting solutions need to be carefully considered by department.
Office lighting is a topic that all businesses should be looking at and adhering to especially as current lighting systems may be having an impact on your staff’s performance — improved visibility means improved performance!
