Many people don’t think a lot about safety in the home when it comes to computing. There are no specific regulations [As far as UK laws are concerned.] as such concerning a home-office and/or computer lab that exists within your own home in which only one person; namely yourself, works, and which only you yourself have access to.

Nevertheless HASAW (Health And Safety At Work.) applies just as much to such a situation as it does to an official workplace used by multiple staff. In fact probably more so.

“In space; nobody can hear you scream!” – In the same way, when you’re alone in the computer lab and receive a serious injury, there may well be nobody to hear your calls for help.

It’s much more sensible to avoid any accidents in the first place. If you’re self-employed then this is particularly true; as time lost through injury or incapacity can be disastrous for the self-employed.

What can you do to make the computer room safer?

In the UK there are government directives concerning the mandatory safety standards in a place of public employment. These are contained in The Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. If you abide by these rules where applicable, even in a home-office, then it’s very unlikely that you’ll have any safety issues in your private workspace.

There may well be equivalents of these regulations in the country in which you live, if you don’t live in the UK.

You might consider such guidelines a bit much to stick to in a home environment; but safety now is always better than sorrow later.

Accidents can damage computer equipment, which can damage the data they contain. Lost or damaged (Corrupt) data is as good as no data.

Accidents can damage you too, and may prove to be fatal in certain circumstances: Dead geeks are no good to anyone; especially to themselves.

Stay safe, stay alive, stay well.