American City Business Journals Inc. : Your computer could be killing you Sitting at a computer for long periods of time could kill you, according to a new study reported in the February 2003 edition of the European Respiratory Journal. It says there is a risk of developing life-threatening blood clots from sitting for long periods at a computer, similar to a problem that has injured or killed some airline passengers on long flights. The report centers on a case from New Zealand in which a young man who spent up to 18 hours a day sitting at his computer nearly died after developing a massive blood clot that formed in his leg veins, broke off and traveled to his lungs, a condition called pulmonary embolism. This new disorder has been termed "e-thrombosis" by the authors to describe what may become the 21st century variant of thrombosis associated with immobility from prolonged sitting. This condition was first described in people sitting in deck chairs in air raid shelters during the Blitz in London and subsequently identified with prolonged air travel. Dr. Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand and his colleagues warn that there may be a large unrecognised risk of developing blood clots in this situation when the widespread use of computers in so many aspects of modern life is considered. "It may be similar to the situation with the risk of blood clots with long distance air travel â it was not until there was publicity with individual cases that the real extent of the problem was recognised," he says. The authors recommend that, with the current state of knowledge, it would seem prudent to advise all people who commonly sit for prolonged periods at a computer to undertake frequent leg and foot exercises and to take regular breaks away from their computer. source: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/01/27/daily44.html
The above article is from January 2003, but after what happened to David Bloom in Iraq I thought we should all be aware of it...
I thought this would be about specific computer attributes that are death-dealing. Instead, sSounds like it's sitting that kills you. So, spending large amount of times watching TV can doom you too, no? If anything, I'm surprised no one's linked the unexplained growing numbers of brain cancer cases with long term lifetime bombardment of daily low level radiation transmitted from TV sets, let alone computers. From sitting long term, I'm surprised there are no reported cases of ass-cheek cancer.
Yes, it seems that the prolonged immobile sitting was the suspect, not the computer. Personally, my computer's by my bed (man am I lazy), and I'm in bed the whole time I use it. Now, if the hours I spend in bed using my computer were "lethal" too, well, we'd all be dead from sleeping 8 hours or so a day. Crossing the street, on the other hand, is something clearly fraught with life-threatening risk. That's why I prefer to stay inside in bed using my computer.
I am with you hii.......we sit in a double recliner with the computer on my lap all day trading. Today we are not, the boat is rocking so badly in the wind, it keeps putting us to sleep. And this morning I nearly "decorated" my computer watching all the squiggly lines with the boat jerking on the lines in the slip.......I have a rule not to trade when I am seasick! I hope having my legs supported keeps me from having clots! I am having so much fun, I do not want to die!
Maybe I should buy a waterbed, then I too can decorate my computer while sitting in bed, avoiding embolism and oncoming traffic.
Yes hii....we can rock on together on our seperate patches of water.....we can start a new trading style.....it would be very relaxing.....I can see all the traders in the exchang copying us......nothing but waterbeds all over the floor. Rocking and trading at the NYSE...