Office workers suffer increase in dry eye

Increasing numbers of people who use computers for prolonged periods or work in air-conditioned offices are regularly attending eye clinics complaining of dry eye.

According to Johnny Moore, visiting professor at the University of Ulster and a consultant ophthalmic surgeon with the Cathedral Eye Clinic in Belfast, more needs to be done to raise awareness of the problem, its causes and the measures that can be taken to prevent damage to vision.

'When you look only at groups of people who work in offices - by which I mean something like between six and nine hours of computer use a day - the number complaining of symptoms is in the 50-60 per cent range,' he said.