Cell Phone Equipment & Supplies Eagle River AK

Leave it to the cheeky Brits at Virgin Mobile to set up a Web site devoted to an emerging workplace hazard and call it PractiseSafeText . As billions of text messages are typed and sent each year on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world, they appear to be taking an unexpected toll.

Remember carpal tunnel syndrome and how it seemed to strike keyboard users and meat-hangers like an epidemic in the ’90s? Now the 21st century has spawned its own repetitive-motion workplace hazard, and it’s hitting us right in a place that separates us from most other creatures – our handy, multi-purpose opposable thumbs.

First, Give It a Cool Name

The American Physical Therapy Association calls it “Blackberry Thumb,” a malady causing pain, swelling or numbness of the thumb from texting on those wee buttons. Physical therapist Margot Miller, president of APTA’s Occupational Health Special Interest Group, says the condition is a repetitive-stress injury caused by performing the same motion for long periods of time.

“The devices are wonderful for short use, but PDAs are being used for everything – phone, addresses, searching the Web and e-mail,” Miller says. “That leads to continual abuse on the joint. At first it’s irritated, then there’s swelling and soreness, and it could lead to tendonitis.”

Miller’s advice is to use PDAs when you have to, but if you’re at a computer, stick to the full-size keyboard.

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