<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="13"> People who spend a lot of time working at video display terminals are increasingly being afflicted with a range of maladies that are often grouped under the heading "computeritis".</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="14"> The problems posed by computers range from relatively minor eye or back strains to serious muscular-skeletal disorders, such as painful and debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="17"> Her eyesight, she said, has definitely deteriorated during the eight years she has worked with a computer as an administrative assistant.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="18"> She also complains of constant fatigue.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="20"> She also believes two miscarriages were linked to constant exposure to VDTs, although she concedes that she cannot prove a link.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="30"> Back and neck pain are also frequent complaints of computer users.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="31"> And eyestrain, including claims of permanent vision damage, are the most common malady of VDT users.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="40"> The board said no conclusive evidence had been presented that working at VDTs is a "hazard," defined as leading to permanent physical injury.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="45"> Even more controversial than repetitive motion injuries from computers are the persistent concerns that radiation from terminals can cause reproductive disorders.</s>

<s docid="LA052290-0188" num="46"> Studies have shown that the levels of "ionizing" radiation, or X-rays, produced by computer terminals are too small to be a problem.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="28"> Along with efficiency and speed and ease, though, the high-tech revolution also has generated complaints of crippling side effects.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="29"> Questions have been raised about problems such as blurred vision and an increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="30"> Most clearly linked to computer work, however, is damage to tendons, muscles and nerves, apparently caused by punching keys as often as 18,000 times an hour, for hours at a time.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="41"> But the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a research arm of the Department of Health and Human Services that advises the Labor Department, is convinced that repetitive strain injuries have a cause-and-effect relationship to computer work.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="46"> "It's valid to assume," she says, "that millions of Americans have computer-related (cumulative trauma) disorder now".</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="202"> Over the past four years, more than 200 of The Times' 1,100 editorial employees have sought medical help for computeritis.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="212"> At an Oklahoma City office of The Hertz Corp., about 20% of the data processors who feed car-rental contract information into computers came down with tendinitis.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="229"> Nobody knows exactly how many people have computeritis.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="231"> He believes that the incidence of computeritis has been underreported.</s>

<s docid="LA031289-0009" num="258"> Westin tells of a bank he surveyed, but chooses not to name, where half a dozen data processors in a department of 35 or 40 started blaming their computers and workstations for a range of aches and pains.</s>

<s docid="FT932-12233" num="6"> The dangers of working at visual display units without suitable, properly adjusted work surfaces and seating are well documented.</s>

<s docid="LA100690-0107" num="8"> Electronically monitoring the output of workers at video display terminals significantly increases VDT-related health problems such as aching wrists, back and neck woes and fatigue, according to a study released Friday by the Communications Workers of America and a university industrial engineering expert.</s>

<s docid="LA100690-0107" num="9"> The study -- lacking medical precision because it was based solely on the survey responses of a limited number of employees -- is the first to confirm years of anecdotal grumbling about the physical consequences of working at a computer in a monitored office.</s>

<s docid="LA100690-0107" num="14"> Less clear was whether monitored employees -- under pressure to work faster because of the threat of being disciplined for failing to meet an employer's computer-generated standards -- were more susceptible to VDT-related injuries.</s>

<s docid="LA100690-0107" num="18"> Smith said monitored workers were 59% more likely than unmonitored workers to complain of a loss of feeling in their fingers and wrists, 112% more likely to complain of stiff or sore wrists, 56% more likely to complain of neck and shoulder pain, 25% more likely to complain of severe fatigue and 30% more likely to complain of extreme anxiety.</s>

<s docid="LA060690-0112" num="9"> A team of government and university researchers has concluded that there is a "significant association" between typing at computer keyboards at Newsday and New York Newsday and the incidence of repetitive-strain injuries -- widespread occupational illnesses resulting from repeated motions.</s>

<s docid="LA060690-0112" num="11"> It identified several job-related factors -- including workstation design and individual work habits -- as potential risks associated with repetitive-strain injuries, or RSI.</s>

<s docid="LA060690-0112" num="12"> In a preliminary report issued earlier this year, NIOSH-Michigan researchers found that 40% of more than 800 employees surveyed reported symptoms of RSI, including pain experienced in hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders or neck.</s>

<s docid="LA060690-0112" num="16"> Researchers said some cramped workstations -- including video-display terminals, desks, chairs and other equipment -- could contribute to RSI by constraining worker postures for long periods of typing.</s>

<s docid="FR940405-1-00038" num="8"> In addition, other physical factors such as lack of windows, noise, and inadequate lighting, and ergonomic factors involving uncomfortable furniture and intensive use of video display units, etc., will cause discomfort in occupants that may be inaccurately attributed to air quality.</s>

<s docid="FT923-4291" num="25"> Computer operators report 'sick building syndrome' more often than other workers.</s>

<s docid="FT923-4291" num="26"> That may be because terminals attract dust which settles on the faces of the operators.</s>

<s docid="LA112889-0127" num="13"> The "A" shape -- which looks like someone broke the keyboard over his knee -- can be adjusted to varying heights, which Hodges says helps eliminate hand and wrist injuries suffered by many workers who spend long hours in front of computer terminals.</s>

<s docid="LA112889-0127" num="19"> Like Hodges, most keyboard inventors say their passion for change has been spurred, in part, by an interest in reducing hand and wrist injuries -- known as repetitive strain injuries, or RSI -- experienced by thousands of computer users each year.</s>

<s docid="LA112889-0127" num="28"> The lighter touch of computer keys enables workers to type at high speeds, and these repetitive motions, experts say, can overwork a group of tendons in the hands and wrists, increasing the risk of RSI.</s>

<s docid="LA112889-0127" num="34"> "It's true that a person can suffer from using a computer, but that problem has nothing to do with the keyboard," said Rita Black, a spokeswoman for International Business Machines Corp., which makes most of the keyboards sold with its computers.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-40544" num="15"> This action is taken in response to user anxiety expressed over possible hazardous effects of an electromagnetic wave on human body.</s>

<s docid="FT944-9163" num="43"> This is a common affliction among keyboard operators, involving tendon injuries and sometimes chronic conditions which can lead to early retirement.</s>

<s docid="LA062289-0031" num="12"> Federal, state and local officials across the nation have been looking into the growing number of computer-related repetitive motion injuries.</s>

<s docid="FT943-5077" num="7"> Compaq's label draws users' attention to the risks of repetitive strain injury (RSI) - an umbrella term for disorders with symptoms including swelling and chronic pain in the hands, arms and shoulders.</s>

<s docid="FT943-5077" num="8"> In the US, more than 2,000 law suits have been filed against computer manufacturers by individuals who claim to have been injured through using keyboards.</s>

<s docid="FT943-5077" num="16"> The warning 'represents an acknowledgment that there is an association between keyboard use and injury', says Mr Arnold Lakind, a partner in the New Jersey firm of Szaferman, Lakind, Blumstein, Watter and Blader, which is representing about 200 plaintiffs in RSI complaints against computer companies in the US.</s>

<s docid="FT943-5077" num="29"> Claims by medical experts that there is no link between RSI and keyboards - a feature in some cases currently before the courts - will now scarcely be tenable, says Mr Peter Woods of London law firm Stephens Innocent.</s>

<s docid="FT932-14135" num="10"> Pancucci contracted it after using an electric typewriter but it is increasingly being associated with computer keyboard use.</s>

<s docid="FT932-14135" num="36"> Jeffrey Boyling, a consultant ergonomist and qualified physiotherapist who advises the Financial Times, says RSI cannot be blamed on a particular design of keyboard - 'I've seen cases of RSI involving all manner of keyboards,' he says.</s>

<s docid="FT944-13668" num="8"> Recent studies have shown that using a mouse can cause injuries, says Bjorn Malmberg, technical co-ordinator at ICL Personal Systems.</s>

<s docid="FT944-13668" num="14"> Another condition caused by the use of a mouse is carpal tunnel syndrome.</s>

<s docid="FT944-13668" num="16"> Carpal tunnel syndrome can happen to mouse users if they rest their wrist on the desk while holding the mouse for extended periods.</s>

<s docid="FT944-13668" num="43"> However, all manufacturers point out that improved equipment alone will not prevent any of the debilitating medical conditions.</s>

<s docid="FT934-11852" num="10"> Yesterday the existence of RSI was thrown into question when Judge John Prosser dismissed a damages claim by Mr Rafiq Mughal, a former journalist with the Reuters news agency, that his work conditions using computer keyboards were responsible for injuries to his upper limbs.</s>

<s docid="FT943-8342" num="8"> Responding to widespread concerns about the possibility of repetitive strain injury (RSI) from computer use, Compaq will put stickers on its PC keyboards reading: 'Warning] To reduce risk of serious injury to hands, wrists or other joints read Safety & Comfort Guide'.</s>

<s docid="LA091090-0108" num="75"> The data-processing industry, hoping to reduce computer-screen glare that causes headaches and impedes worker productivity, is looking for ways to adapt the principles of polarized lighting to computer equipment.</s>

