Oct 5, 2010

Laptop users may get toasted

The boy with 'toasted skin syndrome' on his left leg caused by exposure to heat while playing video games with a laptop resting on his legs. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO - PEOPLE who work with a laptop computer on their lap might want to rethink that habit.

Doing it often can lead to 'toasted skin syndrome', an unusual-looking mottled skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure, according to medical reports.

In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months.

'He recognised that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of that, he did not change its position,' Swiss researchers wrote in an article published yesterday in Pediatrics journal.

Another case involved a law student with mottled discoloration on her leg. She spent about six hours a day working with her computer propped on her lap. The temperature underneath was 52 deg C.

That case, from 2007, is one of 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical journals in the past six years. The condition also can be caused by overuse of heating pads and other heat sources. The researchers do not cite any skin cancer cases linked to laptop use, but suggest placing a heat shield under the laptop if you have to hold it in your lap. -- AP

credit to straits times.

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