Many VDU users complain of skin problems, headaches, blocked noses and skin allergies. Swedish scientists now think they know why. They established that new VDU screens emitted a chemical called triphenyl phosphate as they warm up. Even two years later the emissions were ten times background levels. The researchers considered that triphenyl phosphate, which was in the VDU's plastic casings as a flame retardant, should be classed as a human health risk and urged VDU manufacturers to run all new screens for ten days continuously before sale in order to 'bake off' the emissions as much as possible.

English experts commented that flame retardant plastics such as those used in VDU cases were used in an ever increasing number of products ( e.g. carpets, furniture) and were causing growing concern. Professor Vyvyan Howard, a toxicologist at Leeds University also pointed out that plastics emit many other chemicals.