
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 28, 1993                   TAG: 9307280022
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WRIST INJURIES - WHY NOW?

Manual typewriters required much more energy and finger strength to operate than today's computer keyboards. So how to explain the boom in office repetitive-stress injuries - the pain that comes from typing too much for too long?

"I think there was a lot more movement in the hands and arms with a manual typewriter," said Jean Landa Pytel, an assistant professor of engineering at Penn State University and a human motion expert.

"What's happening now is that people working in these work stations assume a position and maintain that position for a long period of time. There's very little movement deviation."

With manual typewriters, experts say, interruptions were frequent. Typists had to change the paper, pull the carriage return, make erasures - all activities that used different muscles and gave fingers and wrists a break.

Now, the computer that eliminates all those chores has made it harder on the hands.

"You don't stop any more. It's constant repetition," said Kay Youngflesh, a specialist in industrial and engineering history at the Smithsonian Institution.

Repetitive-stress injuries are the nation's fastest-growing workplace disability. They can cause permanent damage.

by CNB