BKRSI.RVW 940401 Wiley 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 or 22 Worchester Road Rexdale, Ontario M9W 9Z9 800-263-1590 800-567-4797 fax: 800-565-6802 or 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 USA 800-263-1590 800-CALL-WILEY 212-850-6630 Fax: 212-850-6799 jdemarra@wiley.com aponnamm@jwiley.com "Repetitive Strain Injury", Pascarelli, 1994, 0-471-59533-0, U$18.50 My first actual case of repetitive strain injury (or RSI), as a first aid attendant, was not in the logging camps, railway gangs or spacing crews, but with a young student athlete at an outdoor school. He had, literally, outdone himself the day before on a steep downhill hike. He was one of the best jocks in the school and had no problems with stairs and hill climbs--none of which had prepared him for the repeated extension of his foot which downhill walking required. Work-related repetitive strain injury has been known for a long time now. Writer's cramp shows up in an Italian treatise almost three hundred years old. Research and treatment, however, has lagged. For one thing, RSI generally involves soft tissue damage which does not show up on x-rays (or, indeed, on anything much besides microscopic examination of the tissue). For another, few jobs up until this century have required the kind of environment where actions had to be repeated so often without variation. Until very recently, the most common repetitive strain situations involved gross motor activities, where strains showed up early and responded well to exercise. With the advent of the computer keyboard and data entry as major factors in job situations, RSI has become a serious issue in the workforce. This is a comprehensive, factual and practical guide to RSI. It is directed primarily to the computer user or repetitive strain injury sufferer, covering facts about RSI, symptoms and warning signs, diagnosis, choosing a physician, recovery, legal aspects, maintenance and prevention. A major emphasis is to put users/sufferers in charge of, and responsible for, their own health. The book continually counsels patience. My student athlete, when asked if he could walk out with the rest of the group, visibly tried to calculate how much better he could be in the three days before they had to leave. I had to ask him if he could do it right then, since I knew it wasn't going to heal very fast, and he had to admit he couldn't. His case was actually extremely mild, after only a few hours, and would have faded within a week or so of reduced activity. Most RSI cases, however, traumatize the area for months or even years, and the healing process is correspondingly lengthy. Although the book is written for users, I would strongly recommend that every manager get a copy. Averaged over all employees, RSI accounts for about $200 expense per year and per person. If you have four people working for you, using computers, it is almost certain that at least one will develop RSI at some point. RSI is almost entirely preventable, and is almost entirely caused by ignorance. Most of you reading this are probably nodding your heads and muttering something about carpal tunnel syndrome--unaware that this over- diagnosed syndrome actually accounts for only one percent of RSI, according to one study cited in the book. Highly recommended. A very minor investment in keeping free of an ailment which could severely affect your job--not to mention everything else you do with your hands and body. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKRSI.RVW 940401 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag