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Online is injurious to your health

Anjali Prayag

BANGALORE, May 4

AS if the crippling effect of the US slowdown was not bad enough, Indian software engineers have worse news flashing on their screens. Statistics reveal that there's an alarming increase in the incidence of computer-related injuries (CRIs) among computer users in the country.

A recent study of 565 software professionals in Hyderabad showed that more than 50 per cent of them are already gripped by severe symptoms of CRI. Preliminary results of an ongoing survey among software professionals in Bangalore indicate a similar trend . Worldwide, CRIs now account for more than half of all work-related illnesses, a nine-fold increase since the early 1980s.

Early symptoms of CRIs are expressed as aches in the back, neck and shoulder. These are common enough, you may say. But wait, these are just early signs of IT lifestyle-related affliction. The more advanced ones are severe pain and numbness in the hands, tingling in the fingers, weakness of muscles and excessive fatigue. Slow accumulation of injury leads to difficulty in day-to-day activities such as shaking hands, opening doors, holding newspapers, using a comb, or even holding a teacup. In extreme cas es, employees are forced to give up the use of computers altogether.

Dr Deepak Sharan, an orthopaedic surgeon at Bangalore Children's Hospital and Research Centre, is on an awareness campaign of CRIs. He cites the case of a 28-year-old software engineer from Mysore who's now bereft of a career in computers. He explains, ` `After working for four years in Australia, he returned to India with a severe affliction. Now, he cannot grip a pen and cannot use a keyboard.'' And this is not an isolated case, he warns.

CRI is usually caused by improper use and lack of knowledge about safe computing techniques.

Unfortunately, neither software engineers nor medical practitioners are aware of the debilitating condition. ``Most doctors prescribe painkillers to patients which won't work. They treat the pain at the point it occurs which should not be the case.'' It is a manifestation of a bigger impairment which medical practitioners should recognise.

And why is the use of computers a predisposing factor for disability? The reasons: poor posture, wrong typing techniques, improper way of handling the mouse and a badly-designed work station. All inducers of neuro-muscular disorders. ``The computer user should be taught the correct way of holding the mouse and tapping the key board,'' asserts Dr Sharan.

And who is at high risk? Any computer keyboard user, including children, who are at the computer for two hours or more a day. In fact, the most motivated workers and those with the highest production levels, are at the greatest risk. Unlike in the US, in India employers are not obliged to pay compensation for CRIs.

Dr Sharan has been conducting the awareness programme at several software companies. Currently, he's working with employees of Hewlett Packard. The programme is conducted in two parts: Prevention of the disability and treatment of it.

The first part involves an orientation programme where employees are given a 90-minute talk on CRIs. Simultaneously, a survey of the extent of CRIs among employees is done and the management is notified of the same.

In the second step, those suffering from early symptoms or those predisposed to the affliction are identified. One-day workshops are conducted for them. In the third step, an assessment of the work stations is done and companies are given in-house traini ng on ergonomics.

``The only good news is that it's far easier to prevent a CRI than to cure it once contracted,'' says the doctor.