MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - LCD vs. e-ink

Rebo · 10-31-2010, 04:15 PM

The discussion all started off with a CNET article with the author calling up his own personal ophthalmologist as an expert witness who declares that today’s LCDs will not cause more eye strain. However, I’ll take his statement with a grain of salt. The medical community had insisted Hormone Replacement Therapy f(HRT) for women would not increase the risk of cancer even though there were prevalent statistics supporting the opposite. Finally, a carefully monitored program was administered to a group of poor women by giving them HRT. Midway down the program, a significant number of the poor women in this experiment developed breast, uterus and ovarian cancer and the program was terminated hastily. Even though I personally do not have a problem of working and surfing the web with LCDs, the statistical importance of people stating otherwise in this forum or in other boards cannot be ignored. In fact, the voting poll in the same CNET article shows out of 1236 people who voted, 70% prefer e-ink, 11% prefer LCD and 19% no preference.

I researched the subject more on the internet and most of the discussions are focused on personal experience and a lot of debate. However, I did find the following bio-medical scientific study published in 2006:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/303

A study was conducted on 319 light-on test workers of the TFT-LCD display. The study found a high prevalence of eye discomfort among the workers and most common symptoms were eye dryness (43.3%), eye itching (32%), eye pain (11%) and blurred vision (10.3%). A similar study on VDT (video display terminal) workers in Taiwan also found the most prevalent problems were eye strain (82.4%), eye dryness (52.9%), eye itching (52.9%), and blurred vision (50.0%).

Even though common users are different from long term VDT or LCD test workers, the study does seem to support eye strain related problems for some VDT/LCD users. I have preordered a Nook Color so I’ll report back if I have similar eye strain problem reading on the LCD. I have headaches reading with the e-ink or even paper in low light but I do not have problems staring at the LCD at work and from home for 12 to 13 hours a day, However, I haven’t read a book on any LCD reader yet so it might be a totally different experience.

10-31-2010, 04:15 PM	#101
Rebo Groupie Posts: 173 Karma: 392 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: nook, nook color, kindle 3, Ipad 2nd gen, Nook HD+, Iphone 4S	The discussion all started off with a CNET article with the author calling up his own personal ophthalmologist as an expert witness who declares that today’s LCDs will not cause more eye strain. However, I’ll take his statement with a grain of salt. The medical community had insisted Hormone Replacement Therapy f(HRT) for women would not increase the risk of cancer even though there were prevalent statistics supporting the opposite. Finally, a carefully monitored program was administered to a group of poor women by giving them HRT. Midway down the program, a significant number of the poor women in this experiment developed breast, uterus and ovarian cancer and the program was terminated hastily. Even though I personally do not have a problem of working and surfing the web with LCDs, the statistical importance of people stating otherwise in this forum or in other boards cannot be ignored. In fact, the voting poll in the same CNET article shows out of 1236 people who voted, 70% prefer e-ink, 11% prefer LCD and 19% no preference. I researched the subject more on the internet and most of the discussions are focused on personal experience and a lot of debate. However, I did find the following bio-medical scientific study published in 2006: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/303 A study was conducted on 319 light-on test workers of the TFT-LCD display. The study found a high prevalence of eye discomfort among the workers and most common symptoms were eye dryness (43.3%), eye itching (32%), eye pain (11%) and blurred vision (10.3%). A similar study on VDT (video display terminal) workers in Taiwan also found the most prevalent problems were eye strain (82.4%), eye dryness (52.9%), eye itching (52.9%), and blurred vision (50.0%). Even though common users are different from long term VDT or LCD test workers, the study does seem to support eye strain related problems for some VDT/LCD users. I have preordered a Nook Color so I’ll report back if I have similar eye strain problem reading on the LCD. I have headaches reading with the e-ink or even paper in low light but I do not have problems staring at the LCD at work and from home for 12 to 13 hours a day, However, I haven’t read a book on any LCD reader yet so it might be a totally different experience.