Abstract

To evaluate the effects of reflected glare on eyes, authors assessed the periodic health examination(1991-1996) and self-administered questionnaire data of a semiconductor producing company. The 13 lead frame(LF) department workers have been exposed to high reflected glare in the process for examining the silver plating products. We compared the data of connector(14) and clerical(12) workers as the non-exposed ones. Among LF department workers, 100% felt their visual acuity worsened(connector:81.8%, clerical:85.7%), and 70% had worn the glasses or contact lenses(connector :14.3 %, clerical :40%) since working at the company. Major ophthalmic symptoms of the LF workers are asthenopia, tearing, decreased visual acuity, congestion and glare. Decrease of visual acuity by Hahn's line change of the LF workers is significantly high during a 5-year follow-up(p<0.05 by simple regression) compared with connector, clerical workers.

• Keywords: indirect glare;visual acuity;ophthalmic symptoms