Word: rsi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Employers are quickly learning that they too must face up to the problem. Already, RSI costs about $7 billion a year in lost productivity and medical costs. Moreover, under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which went into effect this summer, employers are now required to accommodate "reasonably" workers with physical impairments. Companies may have to transfer employees with RSI to less stressful jobs or give them special help. Increasingly, unions and other worker groups are demanding that companies provide better keyboards and office furniture and give employees more frequent breaks to reduce the risk of injury...
...RSI involves not just one but an array of ailments resulting from tugging, pounding and straining crucial tissues in the upper body. It usually begins innocuously. "People think they've had a particularly hard day or that they're getting old," says Frank Fernandez, an Oakland, California, attorney who has filed suit against several computer manufacturers on behalf of RSI sufferers...
...every so often to move the carriage or change the paper. The amount of time spent at the keyboard is critical: a study in Australia found that people who typed for more than five hours a day at a computer had 12 times as great a risk of developing RSI as those who spent less time...
...could," says Michael Smith, professor of industrial engineering at the University of Wisconisin. Several other countries are further along in protecting workers. Sweden, for example, has had a strict ergonomic standard since 1979, and in Germany insurance companies scale back benefits to companies that do not adequately guard against RSI...
Admittedly, personal traits and habits often influence who will develop RSI. A pioneer in treating the injuries, Dr. Emil Pascarelli, medical director of New York City's Miller Institute at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, points out how very heavy people can get into trouble. For their hands to reach the keyboard, they have to maneuver their arms around their own girth, and wind up contorting their wrists inward. Double-jointedness can also be a risk factor. Smokers may have fewer injuries, thanks to their periodic breaks away from the terminal to satisfy nicotine cravings. And what goes on outside...