Home Treatment for Repetitive Stress Injury

I think, dear readers, we could all use a stretch break! Here’s a new feature–every week I plan to post the Weekly Stretch. There are many many sites, books, videos and sources out there to learn good human stretches for whichever part of the body you want, so I’m going to do something a little [...]

For many office workers, pain from too much typing is the only kind of personal injury they worry about when they step in the office first thing in the morning.  But a whole other range of hazards can exist in the workplace, ranging from bad ventilation, to falling objects and wires you can trip over.
To [...]

According to one report, 10-20% of computer users report that using the mouse causes them pain. However, there’s no specific type of mouse that’s bad or dangerous, just as there’s no “ergonomic” alternative that can solve the problem for everyone.
The same is true for keyboards, chairs and every other piece of computer equipment available. [...]

If you’re longing for a laptop and thinking about getting the cheap mini-notebooks like the EEE PC instead (retailing around $300), think again. The price tag is sweeter, but the mini-computers cost less because they can’t do as much for you as a full size desktop or laptop.
Instead, mini-computers fill a niche between a [...]

There are lots of software programs out there to help make typing and mousing quicker and easier — and that means less clicks to make your wrists and fingers twinge with overuse pain.
Gmail Labs recently opened up some new apps for Gmail that can make navigation a bit quicker and easier, like the following:

Custom keyboard [...]

I once read an account of the peace negotiations following the Second World War—secretaries stayed up all night, painstakingly typing and retyping official documents. Since this was before the computer era, they used typewriters, and had to retype any page where edits or errors were made.
On reading the historical accounts, my wrists twinged and [...]

Ah, the holidays, a time of great shopping, wrapping, baking, eating — and dish washing. If that’s all done you can sit back and relax, but even if you have a mountain of dishes ahead of you, you can be thankful.
I despise dish washing, but have found a bright healthy lining under all those [...]

Common wisdom says that braces and supports can help you keep functioning while injured, and immobilize a joint so that it can heal. A recent commenter on this blog was in fact pitching some of his braces to readers. So I felt that I should explain that braces or supports can cause as [...]

Over the summer, Barack Obama promised that if elected, he would work to improve ergonomics regulations. “We’re going to have a government that makes sure workers aren’t put at unnecessary risk,” he reportedly said on the campaign trail.
But Obama might have a tough time getting started, because of Bush’s new regulations and the [...]

Today’s topic is brought to you by the second giant gas tanker melt down in the East Bay Area in two years. Around 6 am this morning, an Acura crashed into a gas tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gas on South Interstate 880 in downtown Oakland, right near an area so tangled with freeways [...]