Ergonomic Tips (06/02)
Stress injuries cost real dollars
by John R. Chait D.C., drchait@comcast.net
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
A national study shows a computer work force of 18 million Americans at significant risk from repetitive stress injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome and lower back injuries. Stress injuries cost real dollars; the personal pain is real and lost productivity is astounding.
Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include numbness, burning, tingling
and a prickly pin-like sensation over the palm surface of the hand, and
into the thumb, forefinger, middle finger and half of the ring finger.
Some individuals notice a shooting pain, which goes from the wrist up
the arm, or down into the hand and fingers. With continued median nerve
compression, an individual may begin to experience muscle weakness,
making it difficult to open jars and hold objects with the affected
hand. Eventually, the muscles of the hand served by the median nerve may
begin to grow noticeably smaller (atrophy), especially the fleshy part
of the thumb. 
Untreated,
carpal tunnel syndrome may eventually result in permanent weakness, loss
of sensation, or even paralysis of the thumb and fingers of the affected
hand.
Poor CPU setup heads the list of safety problems discovered. 51 percent place keyboards too high-contributing to neck, shoulder and wrist strain which can as lead carpal tunnel syndrome causes.
The monitor is placed too low for 65 percent of workers, contributing to neck and shoulder stress, and 47.8 percent cradle the phone between the head and shoulder during phone calls instead of using a headset.
Extremely bright, high-glare offices are another recurrent finding. 53
percent 
experience
monitor glare from office lights, sunlight or window glare.
More than half (51.2 percent) of respondents report they support the upper body by resting on their wrists when keyboarding, which can be especially unsafe over time.
A real problem is that 59.8 percent suffer from wrist discomfort during computer work. However, the good news is that this is down slightly from the 62.6 percent reported in the 1998 study.
The cost to business from carpal tunnel syndrome absenteeism frequently exceeds $50,000 per employee when wrist surgery is required. The surgery is ineffective in many of the cases.
There are hidden costs-for example, when a valuable employee must be moved to a less keyboard-intensive job and a new employee found and trained to replace him. The key issue is that much of the costs absolutely could be avoided with simple changes in equipment placement and employee involvement in ergonomics. This is a case of an ounce of prevention being equal to a pound of cure. :
Copyright 2002. This article is from the June 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.