RELAXERCISE, by D. and K. Zerach-Bersin and Mark Resse, is an excellent book with easy to do exercises to relieve neck, shoulder, arm and back pain.

Another recommended book is THE HANDBOOK OF SELF-HEALING, by Meir Schneider and Maureen Larkin (Penguin, 1994).

• To protect your eyesight, some suggest that yellowish green letters on a darker green background are easier on the eye. Some find the contrast of white on black helpful for long periods of work. It is also important to do other work 30 minutes before quitting if possible to allow the eyes to adjust before driving home.

Most of all, every 15 minutes it is important to focus into the distance. Look at your hand and then at a distant object, back and forth 15 times. During breaks, you can rest your eyes by rubbing your palms together vigorously and cupping them over your eyes, while visualizing a peaceful scene in nature or just pitch blackness. This should be done for two or three minutes and is very restful for the eyes. Blink often during breaks. Practise moving your eyes through the whole range of movement five to ten times a day.

• M. Granger Morgan, has written a booklet called ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM 60 HERTZ ELECTRIC POWER (ELF FIELDS) WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT POSSIBLE HEALTH RISKS? This booklet is available free from both Canadian and American electrical companies. This booklet advises "prudent avoidance" of ELF fields which means limiting all avoidable exposure. This can be done with only small investments of time and money.

Examples are turning the heater for your water bed off at night. Use your electric blanket to warm up your bed but turn it off for the night. Move a clock radio from the head of the bed to a dresser across the room.

Conclusion

For women in the workplace, computers have been a mixed blessing. Full-time VDT workers do face increased health risks. In my opinion, the safety of VDT usage for pregnant women has not been adequately proven and I would not recommend taking that chance.

Lastly, I am seriously concerned about the overexposure of our children to VDT screens, especially when the answers to some very troubling questions about the effects of electromagnetic radiation may not be in for many more years.

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of NO IMMEDIATE DANGER, put it this way:

"Unfortunately, technologically-induced illnesses are denied in the late 20th century with the same vehement resistance which met theories of invisible germs and viruses in earlier decades... There are two tragedies here: the first is that a TV screen is not really necessary to enjoy the computer capabilities of word processing, the second is that health effects are almost always discovered by workers and the general public and not by the experts."