Repetitive Strain Injuries

One of the first legal tests of computer manufacturers' liability for so-called repetitive-strain injuries ended in a resounding industry victory Wednesday when a Minnesota jury cleared IBM Corp. of any responsibility for the injuries suffered by a former high school secretary who used a personal computer. Last year, a jury cleared Compaq Computer Corp. in a similar case, but hundreds of other RSI lawsuits are still awaiting trial.

Clint Wilson figured he'd be pitching baseballs in some pristine minor league ballpark by now. Or at least at Penn State, the Big Ten school not far from his parents' home in rural Pennsylvania. Instead, he's standing in a clump of weeds a couple of dozen yards from a busy truck route throwing foam cooler lids into a net. This, he is convinced, is the first step toward the big leagues.

Work-related repetitive strain injuries and similar muscular disorders decreased in 1999 but still accounted for more than a third of all job injuries, the Labor Department said. The new data were released a week after President Bush signed a repeal of Clinton administration ergonomics rules aimed at reducing such injuries. Congress passed the repeal after a stinging legislative fight waged by business interests and labor unions. About 1.

TENNIS elbow sufferers eager to retake the court, return to the computer or get back to hammering nails have long looked to cortisone injections to bring blissful relief. Australian researchers have found the relief part to be real, but short-lived. That blow to die-hard serve-and-volleyers comes from a study published in the Sept. 27 edition of the British Medical Journal that compared three groups of tennis elbow sufferers six weeks and a year after an office visit.

In a new try at drafting rules covering repetitive strain injuries, the Labor Department is proposing standards that are far less demanding on employers than those in a blueprint developed last year. The draft, released Monday, comes just days after the House voted to cut the Labor Department's budget in retaliation for its refusal to honor Republicans' calls for a moratorium on federal safety regulations.

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. The yearlong study of Newsday employees, conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the University of Michigan, found no one cause responsible for the injuries.

In a report that bolsters mounting evidence about the hazards of working on computers, a federal agency has found that the majority of Los Angeles Times employees who complained of computer-related pain were suffering from "significant" musculoskeletal disorders. In a two-year study requested by The Times, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health surveyed nearly 1,000 Times workers who use computers. Forty-one percent of the workers reported that they had been injured.

Two highly publicized events in Great Britain in the last few days--a union vote authorizing a strike at the prestigious Financial Times newspaper and a landmark court case involving phone company typists--have thrown the spotlight on the growing problem of repetitive strain injuries among the nation's white-collar workers. Like the United States, Britain has faced an ever-increasing number of RSI cases among workers whose jobs require long hours at video display terminals.

Using a computer and doing other office tasks can be hazardous to your health. Fortunately, there are things you can do to protect yourself. I'm no Richard Simmons, so I'll spare you the calisthenics, but I do know that it's important to take a break at least once an hour. Stretching your hands, arms and shoulders can relieve stress and help prevent repetitive strain injuries and other upper body ailments. Stretch Break ($44.

A Michigan family is suing Nintendo of America and Toys R Us, charging that repeated use of a video game caused injury to nerves in a teen-ager's hands of the sort usually associated with the use of computers and machinery in the workplace. Nintendo said it has never faced a case associating this type of injury with the game. In the workplace, repetitive stress disorders are the fastest-growing category of job-related illness, according to the Labor Department.

The tendinitis in Mike Estrada's right arm was getting worse. He couldn't write up work orders for his construction company, carry a briefcase or even staple together papers. But although the pain was aggravated by the repetitive stresses of his job, the ergonomic changes -- getting a new office chair, using a track ball instead of a mouse -- didn't help. Finally, he sought help from doctors at USC. They prescribed not additional work changes, but painkillers and -- exercise.

Tennis players risk tennis elbow. Computer geeks get mouse wrist. Steve Maviglio, a preternaturally connected Sacramento political consultant, developed BlackBerry thumb. A former press secretary for Gov. Gray Davis, Maviglio suffered a painful repetitive stress injury aggravated by compulsive use of the portable e-mail device that's become an unlikely icon of status and chic.

Teresa Stitt began having trouble opening jars. Then she felt a shooting pain -- from her wrist halfway up her elbow -- when turning doorknobs, typing or carrying books. When it got to the point that the 52-year-old couldn't hold a pen without pain, she decided to see a doctor. As an elementary school teacher in Vandergrift, Pa., a small town about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, she had to be able to write lesson plans and correct papers.

Surgery appears to be more effective than splints in bringing long-term relief from carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition associated with repetitive, forceful hand motions. The operation, which involves cutting the ligament over the wrist's carpal tunnel to relieve pressure on a major nerve, is the fifth-most-common procedure among Medicare patients. It helps alleviate wrist pain, numbness and tingling in the thumb, index and middle fingers. A new study, from Dr. Annette A.M.

Thirty-six railroad workers will share in a $2.2-million settlement announced Wednesday of a landmark lawsuit that accused Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by secretly conducting genetic tests to investigate workers' compensation claims. Filed in February 2001, the suit targeted the first known case of on-the-job genetic testing.

We all know we should check our posture at our keyboards and take frequent breaks, but as the hours go by, gravity pulls us into a slump and the mouse pad tends to slide farther from our reach. To help keep us in our proper places there are all sorts of pads, supports, cushions, even a mouse designed to nestle cozily into the palm. With all these ergonomic choices, one wonders whether anything really works.

While modern technology has reduced the physical demands of many workplaces, it has created a new set of more subtle physical demands--demands caused by repetitive movements. The automation of manual processes, for example, has created assembly-line positions that require workers to perform the same manipulation over and over again; the advent of the computer has created data entry and clerical positions that require workers to type for hours on end.

To the scores of musicians suffering from performance injuries, Dorothy Taubman, 75, is nothing short of a miracle worker who has healed them from a life of pain and uncertainty. Last month, about 200 keyboardists--performers, professors, would-be teachers, doctors, scientists and just the curious, ranging from ages 13 to 71 and hailing from as far as Israel, Scotland and Japan--assembled at Amherst College for the 18th annual Taubman Institute.

Seeking to call attention to an "epidemic" of repetitive-stress injuries among blue-collar workers, a national labor union filed a federal complaint Tuesday alleging hazardous working conditions at a Pilgrim's Pride Corp. chicken plant in Texas.

The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for millions of workers with painful wrist injuries, bad backs or similar impairments to qualify for protection as disabled people under the federal anti-discrimination law. As long as they can brush their teeth and wash their faces in the morning, these employees are probably not disabled, the high court said unanimously, even if they suffer pain when typing on a computer or lifting a box at work.