[PCM2]

So you’re not crazy nor alone, thanks for sharing your experiences lilro. Do you find lowering brightness on the MacBook Pro Retina helps? With laptops it can be difficult to distance yourself sufficiently from the screen itself, because that would defeat the purpose. Although if it’s practical you might consider an external monitor (particularly a large one if you have the space) which you could sit further away from.

[Ed98027]

Hi new user here.

I have the same issue as well. I’m an healthcare professional, an Osteopath of 20 years of experience. I can confirm the issue is EMF related.

I have experienced the problem for about a year now. My symptoms are triggered by not only ant LCD monitors, but by any florescent or LED lighting. I got burning of the face, my mouth got t dry, and if severe I also get sleep disturbances and anxiety symptoms.

All blood works comes back normal, and as an Osteopath I can assure you the problem is not some kind of mechanical dysfunction of the body, or if found out long ago.

Avoiding exposure seems to be the only solution right now, like turning down the intensity of screen, and changing your lighting to one iridescent light seems to help the most. Also it is very important not to expose yourself to electrical lighting in the evening as that causes sleep disturbances.

I seeked help from doctors and medications and they are useless, getting the acidity of my body down helps as it reduce my overall irritability.. This I do with dietary management by cutting down gluten and carbs.

I also worked with a naturopath who pulled the heavy metal toxicity from my system that helps somewhat also.

I made a mask overlayed it with aluminum that only allows my eyes to look through and it helps a lot too, with it I can finally watch an entire movie without my face burning up. Although it is very uncomfortably hot and difficult to breath though in a warm day, so not a perfect solution.

I hope these tips can help and I’ll check back from time to time if others have helpful tips to share. We are all in this together.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and expertise. That’s a very innovative idea with the mask overlaid with aluminium, it would be interesting if other people had come up with something similar. Perhaps more comfortable on a warm day, but I’m glad that has provided a degree of relief in the right conditions. Have you come across any screens that you find comfortable to use, perhaps OLED screens on phones, tablets or laptops?

[Intikhab]

Well for EMF I have a suggestion I don’t know whether it will work for you or not. I think it is working for me, don’t know for sure. The solution is simple, bare your feet and place them on ground/tiles/marble/etc flooring which can ground us, given that it is not carpeted etc, so surface buildup is getting leaked into it instead of remaining on skin. Whether it works or not do tell! We need to find good solutions for this.

[Cyanix]

As far as i’m concerned, it is not the emf.

I just went through multiple MRIs without any problem.

So far i’ve struggled with all types of screens.
Crt, lcd of all kinds (led, oled, amoled – polite admin edit, OLED/AMOLED is not typically LCD-based), doesn’t matter as long as they emit light.

No help what so ever from doctors for about 19 years…
No one has ever “heard of it” and no one seems interested into running tests.
This literally ruined my life. Lost my job as a software engineer. Of course the wife left right after.
Not being able to use computers is a deal breaker today.
Just typing this message on a 9′ tablet with brightness at 15% stings like a bee.

Considering more people seem to be affected every day, i wouldn’t be surprised if practitioners would suddenly pay attention to this issue in a few years, but for the time being, im afraid we’ll be left suffering.

[PCM2]

I’m really sorry to read all of that Cyanix and I truly hope you’re correct that more attention is paid to this or research into it is done. I can only imagine how utterly devastating it is to suffer from a condition like this, literally tearing up life as you know it and preventing something as simple as comfortably using a screen of any sort.

As a sidenote, as well as running this website I work at the Institute of Neuroscience where I live and work with people who may be interested in looking into this. I will raise this at my next meeting. I can’t promise anything will be done, especially with how funding is at the moment. But I think it’s a useful area for future research.

[Rigby]

Hello all, Ive signed up and I am making my first post so that I can follow this thread. I am happy to have finally discovered a resource that discusses the problem I have been suffering and never expected to find it on a monitor forum.

I have been dealing with the burning feeling on my mouth and chin now for at least 18 months. This sensation definitely occurs when working from my laptop and at times when I am driving. Like the rest of you it is really impacting on my ability to perform work tasks. Cyanix I can understand your difficulties with performing your work duties and I am sorry to hear about your situation.

I have spent the last 18 months thinking it was potentially anxiety related and maybe had something to do with my breathing patterns when I am concentrating at my workstation. I tend to focus intensely on my work and forget to breath deeply/properly. To test this theory I brought an O2 blood sensor and it has indeed shown that my oxygen levels are reduced when I am feeling periods of intense burning sensation. The sensor would at times show blood O2 readings of down to 80% when I was suffering symptoms. Under normal use away from my desk the sensor would show usual levels of 96% to 99%. I have been attempting to breath deeper when working at my desk and it seemed to help the situation. I am by no means telling anyone here that their issues are related to O2 levels. Ive had to come up with my own theories as I could find no answers with medical practitioners or medical websites.

I have spent the last two weeks on a full digital detox without any screen time or tv time and my symptoms fully disappeared. All feeling returned to my face and I felt normal again. Today I pulled out the laptop to spend a few hours in front of the screen and the feeling has returned, currently the O2 sensor is showing a reading of 90%.

i am definitely curious about the monitor and its potential cause of my problem so I will be experimenting. At home I work from a 19 inch Lenovo laptop usually sitting on my lap. At work I use the same laptop but it is paired through a docking station to two monitors. Currently I always sit at the same desk however as I work in a hot desk environment I do have access to both LCD, LED and possibly even some OLED screens. This gives me the opportunity to experiment with the different screens and notice any differences. I will also experiment with a sitting desk vs a standing desk as this will impact the amount of my foot that is contact with the ground which should improve or reduce grounding.

Recently one of my work colleagues was complaining about a warm/hot feeling when using a certain desk and how it was only those two LCD monitors that were causing the problem, as embarrassing as this is for me to admit I didnt believe her as I thought that LCD monitors were harmless compared to CRT. It never crossed my mind that her troubles could be related to the same troubles that I was having so thank you all for sharing.

Once again thank you all for taking the time to share here and I look forward to hearing of any further solutions.

[crystalsouk]

Wow, great to read this thread. I will be following it to review how people have coped with the “red face/red ears” issue.
I have noticed my 3 yr old son getting this anytime he sits in front of a screen, and it seems it has gotten worse this winter. Echoing some members, I have found that there isn’t too much information regarding remedies or even discussion online. We may need to purchase a new monitor and see if there is any difference. Thanks all.

[PCM2]

I’m sorry to hear your son has been suffering from this as well. Whilst I don’t have any additional suggestions to those already discussed, it’s certainly worthwhile trying a different monitor. Some users find certain types of monitor or backlights to be more tolerable than others, but as with everything here it would be something of a case of trial and error.

Setting the monitor to a relatively low brightness and trying creating as much distance between the user and monitor is also helpful. And it can be difficult with infants in particular, but some users find using face cream or a relatively heavy moisturiser as a sort of ‘barrier’ on the face can help. Somebody mentioned that earlier in the thread I believe, but I had another user confirm to me by email that this helped with their symptoms and reduced the itchy/dry sensation and redness.

[Knight Rider]

Hi!

I have this face irritation syndrome at work. I have a laptop with docking station and 2x hp z24i displays, maybe 4 years old. I have had this condition couple of months now. I have tried to use different moisturizers with not much improvement. I have also put my screens and a laptop as far as possible, and l’m using 50% power saver mode for screens. But still some irritation in the afternoon. I tend to believe that this condition might have something to do with pc/laptop/screen emissions: VOCs, toluene, xylene, formaldehyde… etc. with bad indoor air. Air change rate is maybe not adequate.

I will do a simple test next: I will use only one monitor, and I will open window (I have a small single room) to get more fresh air in. Hopefully it helps a bit.

[PCM2]

I’m interesting to hear how you get on with the open window. If that is even partly successful, it could be worth trying an air purifier or HEPA filtration system in the room that the PC is in.

[Knight Rider]

Interesting study: Indoor Pollutant Emissions from Electronic Office Equipment

[PCM2]

Thanks for posting this, it was indeed interesting reading. So I certainly think proper ventilation in the area where such equipment is housed is a good avenue for users to explore. And as far as monitors go, set the brightness as low as comfortable and try to go for a model with low power consumption – because it will generate less heat and therefore emit fewer VOCs. Of course the monitor will only be one source of such emissions, so I think adequate airflow in the room is important and it’s probably something many users overlook.

[personperson]

I’ve recently bought a new laptop and have had a burning face and eyes (can feel straight away buy does get worse the longer I use the laptop) to the point that a family member asked if I was okay because my face was red.
This is an Asus laptop.
The thing is I use a MacBook, Android phone, friends apple phone and Asus monitor and don’t have issues with any of them.
Is it likely to be a different screen or even a faulty product? I’m very confused that it is only this device.
If I cover only the screen of the laptop the burning sensation goes away so it is definitely coming from the screen.
I’ve appreciated reading this forum and hope all are able to fine a solution.
Thank you

[PCM2]

It is not likely that the laptop screen you’re having an issue with is faulty, but rather than you’re having issues with one or more viewing comfort factors. It’s difficult to pinpoint which factor or factors are causing the issue and some you can’t change and would simply need a different screen. Others you can control, in particular:

– Try running the screen at the lowest possible brightness and see if that helps. This will naturally minimise light output and can help alleviate various issues you may be having.

– Try running the screen at full brightness and instead use the graphics driver or software (such as f.lux) to lower brightness. You will lose contrast by doing this and the image might not look appealing, but it’s designed to eliminate PWM (flickering) from the backlight. This could be causing some issues. The vast majority of screens which use PWM only do so if the brightness control of the screen is set below 100%.

[JohnWinner]

After reading this thread I think that some of you may have a problem with heavy metals intoxication, in particular mercury. Mercury can messed up a LOT of things in your body including the brain, the immune system, adrenals, minerals transport, etc. It is not uncommon to be sensitive to chemicals, food and even electricity and EMF when you are mercury intoxicated. (I have all these!) If you ever had silver amalgams in your mouth (even if you got rid of them) you may suffer from mercury intoxication. Just a potential path to investigate. Please search for Andrew Cutler for more information. I wish you the best!

[zero2k]

I’m back reading this forum again. I was here about a year ago on a different username, I get amazed when I see what people write and I’m like jeez I thought it was only me that suffered this. I was just reading your post there and what you said about making the mask Was the same thing that I did, I made one and put tin foil all over it, but it doesn’t help me at all. The effect that I get is between the right side of the bridge of my nose and my right eye, it raises up like it’s swollen, I also get a huge spot on my cheek or nose if I look at a full bright screen, even for a few seconds. One thing that does help and you can’t get it on iPads or iPhones is an app called Screen Dimmer. You can get it on a windows pc or Android device. It works good on my phone but it doesn’t eliminate the problem totally. Just the other day I thought of something that might help. I used to work in a computer factory and I was building pcs. One thing that we all had to do everyday was put on this strap and attach a wire to it, it was calledan esd strap so one end would be attached to the ground and the other to the wrist strap. This was so the esd from the body wouldn’t effect the parts of the pc like the hard drive etc. I was thinking maybe the same strap would prevent the effect of emf. I might give a try. Just thought I’d share it anyway. 🙂

There’s also an app called screen dimmer, it works well.

P.S. That link for the article on your post is dead. I was very interested in what you wrote, have you come to any solutions yet? Hope to hear from you.

[PCM2]

Hi zero2k,

Which link are you referring to that is “dead”? It might be helpful if you reference a particular person here as it isn’t clear who you’re speaking to or the link you’re referring to.

And just in case it isn’t clear to others, “zero2k” and “zero” are the same person. The new account was presumably created due to a change of email address?

[Knight Rider]

Hi!

I have had this condition about 1,5 years now. Burning and irritation mostly in my forehead. No other symptoms. I can confirm that my symptoms are related to computer screen, in one way or other. I got new HP 27″ screen with led backlight last summer. Unfortunately it did not bring any relief when compared to old 24″ model. Luckily my symptoms are not very severe. I can work almost normally, but symptoms can’t be completely avoided. There are days with hardly any symptoms, and days with more symptoms. Symptoms are strongly stress related. If I feel myself stressed, also the symptoms get worse immediately.

I have found that it’s best to adjust the screen brightness to 100%, contrast to as low as possible, currently 15%, and to use blue light filter and warm color. I have also pushed my screen as far as possible (0.9…1.0 m). I use laptop with docking station and I have pushed it as far as possible (1.5 m) from me. I use separate mouse and keybord. LAN connection, no bluetooth, no wifi.

I have found some remedies to relief my symptoms. I have a dry and pretty sensitive skin in my face. That’s why I have to use products for sensitive/hypersensitive skin only. Are not cheap to buy. I use Avene thermal spring water and Avene tolerance cream. If symptoms get worse, I use 1% hydrocortison cream. It’s the best product to soothe the skin, but I think it’s not meant for daily use.

I wrote earlier that I have tried to open the window to get some fresh air in to my office room. It’s good to breath fresh air, but I think it’s not helping my symptoms.

I’d like to hear your experiences/opinions about ionizing air purifiers/cleaners, if that could help. Also @ zero2k wrote about grounding. I’d like to hear if someone has tested it.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing more of your experiences, Knight Rider. I’d like to hear from anybody who has had success with (or at least tried) air purifiers and suchlike, this was something I’ve been curious about myself. Fortunately I don’t suffer from these symptoms, but if I did that’s definitely something I’d try.

It’s interesting that you found setting brightness to 100% worked best on your 27″ HP screen. What model is it? I’m wondering if it uses PWM, which setting the backlight to 100% would eliminate. But perhaps you’re setting it that may to ensure that, with such low contrast levels, things are still readable for you. If your symptoms are caused by emissions from the monitor when it’s switched on, then setting the backlight brightness to maximum could be counter-productive. That generates the most heat, for example, and could increase static energy or various particulates in the air.

[Author]

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