Have you ever sat your laptop in your lap to work on a project for hours at a time, and you feel it heating up your legs? Well, I suggest you rethink that habit.ABC News reported on Tuesday, October 5th, a young woman's encounter with "toasted skin syndrome", also known as erythema ab igne. The woman, 24-year-old, Kristin Manigault, said, "It started looking really funny. Then I kind of overlooked it. It started to spread and of course that made me really nervous."
A second case emerged on Yahoo News, where a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterened discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months was reported in an article in the journal, Pediatrics, by Swiss researchers. UPI also reports that these researchers at the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland say that laptop-induced dermatosis, whcih was first described in 2004, can lead to permanent darkening of the skin and, sometimes, skin cancer.
Yet another case is reported in Yahoo News involved a Virginia law student who needed treatment for the mottled discoloration on her leg. The doctor who treated her, Dr. Kimberly Salkey, was perplexed until she discovered that the student spent about six hours a day working with her laptop on her lap. Its temperature underneath was 125 degrees. This cause was reported in 2007, and is one of the 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical journals in the past six years. As UPI includes, the 10 patients, as published in the journal Pediatrics, had lesions on one or both of their upper legs.
Therefore, unless you're unclear on this subject, please do not work with your laptop on your laps, students. At least, not for extended periods of times because it can cause damaging effects to your skin. So, now that fall is upon us, cover up and stay warm, but not with your laptops!
This article really caught my attention. I knew that my lap top got hot, but I didn't know that it could actually cause burns. This is really scary. With this kind of information, is anyone trying to fix the problem? Are there certain computers that get hotter than others? What degree burns are these that people are getting. I would really like to know these things as a word of warning for future reference. I will now put something between me and my laptop.
ReplyDeleteI thought this blog was very informative. This blog gave me information on a problem that I didn't even know existed. The title of the blog immediately cought my attention. Your opening statement really drew me in beacuse I, myself sit with my laptop on my lap for long periods of time. The reasoning behind your argument flowed nicely throughout the blog.
ReplyDeleteWow, talk about handing out informative pieces of information! Besides the skin burning, are there any other hazards dealing with laptops? After a bit of research, I came across astounding information regarding the effects the laptops have on the male's reproductive systems. The heating of laptops heat up the male's scrotum ( about 35 degrees above normal) having a negative impact of sperm production and male infertility. Maybe males should use their handy electronic devices on a table if they plan on having children. What other commonly used electronic devices have health hazards that people should be aware of? Are there any products that can help prevent the hazards from occurring? If burned, how serious could the exposure be? MOre researh led me to find that laptops have even been the cause of house fires! This seems to be a bigger issue than people would imagine. Have you researched whether laptop companies put on their labels a caution sticker? I would rant that they should really consider it so the public can be educated of these possible risks. These devices are such common products that billions of people use everyday, I think it is due to them that they are aware of what could happen to them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/laptop-hazards-and-tips-on-ergonomic-use.html
http://consumerist.com/2007/02/dell-laptop-burned-down-my-house.html