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However, Ranney also says, RSI isn't a diagnosis of what's wrong with someone's body -- it's a statement about what caused the injury, which isn't quite the same thing. Some excerpts from the article:
Since the 1970's, an increase in the prevalence of athletic overuse injuries in the general population has been noted. Overuse problems affecting muscles, tendons, and nerves are increasingly seen in workers. . . .Other researchers at UW are also working in the general area of repetitive strain injury and how to avoid it, and the university's safety office has information available on good ergonomics for people working at computer keyboards.Repetitive Strain Injury is an expression used to indicate a soft tissue injury that appears to be due to repetitive overuse. In biomechanics, the word "strain" refers to a structural alteration in the tissues to which a force has been applied. This can be demonstrated in a laboratory by constantly or repetitively pulling on a muscle or tendon -- its structure will gradually be disrupted, even if the force itself is relatively small. While "RSI" could mean overuse in any situation, use of this term is normally restricted to an occupational setting. For example, a carpenter continually reaching upward and forward could injure shoulder tendons -- this would be rotator cuff tendinitis with or without impingement on the coracoacromial arch of the scapula. Identical pathology could be seen in a baseball pitcher, also as a result of repetitive reaching upward and forward, while pitching overhand. For the carpenter, this pathology would be classified as RSI, but for the pitcher it is labeled an athletic injury. Ironically, if the pitcher were a professional baseball player, the injury would be work-related and therefore labeled RSI. . . .
To prove the condition is work-related there must be a history that the problem began quite gradually at work and in the absence of non-work activity that could have caused it. . . . A physical examination will identify which structures have been injured, but a job description must show such injuries can reasonably be expected to result from a particular work activity. . . .
Injured workers may be reluctant to complain of pain when there is no acute injury and no change in appearance of the injured part. They carry on until the pain becomes so intense that activities at home are affected and it is impossible to maintain work activity at the required pace. Lack of understanding by the employer and fellow workers prevents complaints for a while, but when functional disability increases to a critical level, an injury is reported. . . .
Ergonomic intervention can do much to eliminate the physical causes of injuries. Improvements are being made, but some individuals seem more susceptible to injury than others. The way they work may be a factor, but physical strength and psychological make-up are also factors that determine whether an injury may occur.
"We are encouraging all users to recharge Venda cards with only small monetary increments and to use up the funds by December 31," says Colette Nevin in graphics.
"The WatCard will provide a more secure means of providing copy transactions. If lost, a WatCard can be immediately de-activated by any WatCard cash register either by name or using the account number on the card. No one can pick up the card and use the money on it if it is de-activated. This is not the case with Venda cards. A lost Venda card is lost cash!"
An information meeting is scheduled for Monday for people from departments that need to know more, chiefly those that have self-service copiers now using Venda cards. "John Cunningham of the WatCard office will answer WatCard questions," says Nevin, "Carol Hunsberger of Ikon will answer questions about copiers used, and Colette Nevin and Mike Jack of graphics will answer general questions about the end of the Venda program." Monday's meeting starts at 12:45 in Davis Centre room 1302.
It ain't necessarily so, she says in a talk to be given this afternoon, sponsored by UW's women in mathematics committee. "It is not wise to assume," she goes on, "that the status of women in mathematics and the sciences in the industrialized countries is necessarily better than the status of women mathematicians and scientists in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Nor can we presume that the position of women in mathematics is necessarily better at the present time than it was in previous centuries. The picture is much more complicated than that, and often has elements of contradiction. This talk will focus on some of the more counterintuitive and surprising aspects of women's participation in the mathematical enterprise both now and historically."
Everyone is welcome. Koblitz, who teaches history at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, will be speaking at 3:30 in Math and Computer room 5158.
Also of note:
On Thursday, a seminar on the Microgravity Science Program sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency is to be held in Needles Hall. "The seminar will outline the opportunities and funding available to conduct research in space," says Margaret Royds of UW's research office. And that's not just about reaching the final frontier: "Experimentation in microgravity can lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved and result in new processing and manufacturing techniques and new products on earth, as well as the possibility of averting industrial accidents caused by combustible dusts." Researchers in such fields as materials science, biotechnology, and fluid physics may be interested. The seminar (starring Alan Berinstain, project manager of the Microgravity Sciences Program) starts at 3:00 Thursday in NH room 3001.
CAR
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
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