by Janice M. Horowitz
Time Magazine (October 1998)
As more U.S. workers spend their days at keyboards, hand injuries and lawsuits are multiplying.
As jobs in journalism go, Grant McCool's was a very desirable assignment. Based in Hong Kong for Reuters news service, McCool covered breaking news throughout east Asia, traveling to South Korea, China and Pakistan. But in 1997, after five hectic years, the native of Scotland was ready for a change. That's when his bosses transferred him to New York City to be an editor.
That's also when the trouble started. After typing on his computer keyboard for hours a day over several months, McCool developed excruciating (难忍受的) pain in his hands; some mornings he would wake with his arms throbbing (跳动) and burning."The doctor told me to stop typing immediately," recalls McCooh 32. He hasn't written or edited a story on deadline since.Nor has he been able to clean house, carry heavy objects or play tennis. He cannot even drive a car; controlling the steering wheel with his injured hands is impossible.
McCool suffers from a severe case of cumulative (累积的) trauma (创伤) disorder, a syndrome that results from overusing the muscles and tendons (腱) of the fingers, hands, arms and shoulders. The condition brings pain, numbness, weakness and sometimes long-term disability. Such problems, more commonly known as repetitive stress injuries (RSI), now strike an estimated 185,000 U.S. office and factory workers a year. The cases account for more than half the country's occupational illnesses, compared with about 20 percent a decade ago.
A particularly fast-growing category of victims includes white-collar professional and clerical workers who spend their days pounding away at keyboards. An increasing number are responding in a white-collar way: with lawsuits. Hundreds of injured telephone reservationists (预订业务承力员), cashiers, word processors and journalists, McCool among them, are suing computer manufacturers, blaming the machines for their disabilities. IBM, Apple Computers, AT&T and Kodak's Atex-division, which produces a wordprocessing system designed for journalists, have all been named in the suits, which demand damages of up to a ＄1 million or more per victim.
Employers are quickly learning that they must face up to the problem. Already, RSI costs about ＄ 7 billion a year in lost productivity and medical costs. Moreover, under the provisions (条款) of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which went into effect this summer, employers are now required to accommodate "reasonably" workers with physical impairments (损伤).Companies may have to transfer employees with RSI to less stressful jobs or give them special help. Increasingly, union and other worker groups are demanding that companies provide better keyboards and office furniture and give employees more frequent breaks to reduce the risk of injury.
How ironic that computers, the very technology celebrated for making office work easier, would cause such harm. By now, nearly half the U.S. work force —some 45 million workers —use computers (though not all spend hour after hour punching keys). "We thought technology was going to help us, which it does. But we did not consider that we would also have to adjust the workplace at the same time," says Barbara Silverstein, research director of Washington State's department of labor and industries.
RSI involves not just one but an array of ailments resulting from tugging, pounding and straining crucial tissues in the upper body. It usually
A．Y
B．N
C．NG
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