Text Messaging May Lead to Repetitive Strain Injury

Text messaging has become a usual method of communication for mobile phones users, UK counting over 93.5 million text messages sent daily. This has led to an increasing number of reported cases of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

Andrew Chadwick, director of the British RSI Association considers that SMS messages are a perfect way for the condition to occur: "We're talking about people making hundreds of tiny repeated movements as they use the mobile keypad". "Because the movements are small they do not cause the blood to circulate, and that means the fingers are acting like an engine without oil." he added. The effects include the painful swelling and inflammation of the fingers and thumb.

Over 12 percent of the population admits that they send up to 20 messages daily, while 10 percent exceed 100 messages per day. Thus, it is not surprising that many people suffer from RSI. A survey conducted by Virgin Mobile revealed that there are about 3.8 million people per year affected by thumb and wrist pain due to the writing of text messages.