Comment Article itself misrepresents "facts" (Score 1) 377
yes, /. misrepresents the article, but even worse, the actual content of the article is full of quotes that are just plain wrong or misleading. It really sucks because RSI sufferers, like many people who have symptoms of chronic pain, are already misunderstood, and 99% of doctors don't have a clue.
Check out Penny Kome's (hopefully, soon to be published) dispute for some insight on the article's psuedo-facts...
TO the Editor of the National Post;
Re: Repetitive Stress Injury was just "hysteria"
Your article starts with wrong premises, adds inaccuracies, and comes to a fallacious conclusion. RSI never existed? Wrong! Check any Workers Compensation Board annual report. Oh, but you have to look under the proper name: Musculoskeletal Disorders.
Here are a few of your inaccuracies. You quote Dr Dean Louis as saying that "A keyboard never injured anyone." Wrong! I invite you to flip over the keyboard on the next personal computer you see. You will find a warning label there, that says something like, "Continuous use of a keyboard may cause injury."
Similarly, you have got the OSHA ergonomics standard fight backwards. Your story asserts that, "It took organized labour 10 years of lobbying to have the standards written." Wrong! On the contrary, Elizabeth Dole (George Bush's Labor Secretary) enacted the meatpacking ergonomics standards in 1990 and directed OSHA to develop general standards which were brought forward in 1994.
Dr Melzack says that in other parts of the world, RSI is unknown, but he doesn't say where. Strain injuries are recognized as serious occupational hazards in Asia, especially Japan, which had an epidemic in the 1960s.
In Europe, all nations in the European Union now require certain minimum standards to protect computer workers. The UK provides criminal penalties for employers who leave their workers at risk for workplace injuries. And the first year-long, continent-wide occupational health program (which ended October 2000) was about preventing strain injuries.
With the Australian example, you omit the essential fact that the government changed the name from RSI to OOS (Occupational Overuse Syndrome). So it is meaningless to say that the "epidemic....ended when the government ruled it would no longer compensate workers for the condition." The government officially abolished RSI therefore, nobody had it any more.
In 1992, a rueful editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia lamented how eagerly doctors had abandoned their patients: "We are left...with a residue of patients with chronic arm pain related to their work, some of whom are still working reduced hours and some of whom have been off work for months or years and are still in considerable distress."
But the key point, where your story is half-right, is that carpal tunnel syndrome was widely over-diagnosed for many years. Every patient with wrist pain got a CTS diagnosis, and too many of them had unnecessary surgery, which failed to correct their condition. JAMA reported in 1991 that 57 percent of post-op patients complained their symptoms returned within two years.
Contrary to your report, true CTS is not that common. In fact, the most common strain injury is tendinitis, which is still (alas) very much with us. So when Dr Stevens agrees that office workers' "neck, arm and upper back pain" is real, he is acknowledging the reality of strain injuries, or RSI.
We expect the NP to put a political spin on every story, but this is outrageous, even for you. Take the word "hysteria". If the Post bothered to mention that two-thirds of Workers' Comp claims for strain injuries are filed by women, then readers could judge for themselves how politically loaded the "hysteria" label is.
Despite the prestigious persons quoted, your reporter simply does not know what he is writing about, as demonstrated by the fact that he uses "RSI" and "carpal tunnel syndrome" interchangeably. The odd thing is that your story could be read as a tribute to the success of ergonomics, a science which has proved its worth in factories and offices all across the world.
Strain injuries can be excruciatingly painful and profoundly disabling, not to mention extremely expensive. Prevention protects employers and the public purse, as well as workers. That's why Republican administrations keep trying to implement ergonomics regulations. If your editors had made even a token effort towards balanced reporting, you'd know that.
Yours truly,
Penney Kome
Author, Wounded Workers: The Politics of Musculoskeletal Injuries (University
of Toronto Press, 1998) Copyright Penney Kome 2001
Check out Penny Kome's (hopefully, soon to be published) dispute for some insight on the article's psuedo-facts...
TO the Editor of the National Post;
Re: Repetitive Stress Injury was just "hysteria"
Your article starts with wrong premises, adds inaccuracies, and comes to a fallacious conclusion. RSI never existed? Wrong! Check any Workers Compensation Board annual report. Oh, but you have to look under the proper name: Musculoskeletal Disorders.
Here are a few of your inaccuracies. You quote Dr Dean Louis as saying that "A keyboard never injured anyone." Wrong! I invite you to flip over the keyboard on the next personal computer you see. You will find a warning label there, that says something like, "Continuous use of a keyboard may cause injury."
Similarly, you have got the OSHA ergonomics standard fight backwards. Your story asserts that, "It took organized labour 10 years of lobbying to have the standards written." Wrong! On the contrary, Elizabeth Dole (George Bush's Labor Secretary) enacted the meatpacking ergonomics standards in 1990 and directed OSHA to develop general standards which were brought forward in 1994.
Dr Melzack says that in other parts of the world, RSI is unknown, but he doesn't say where. Strain injuries are recognized as serious occupational hazards in Asia, especially Japan, which had an epidemic in the 1960s.
In Europe, all nations in the European Union now require certain minimum standards to protect computer workers. The UK provides criminal penalties for employers who leave their workers at risk for workplace injuries. And the first year-long, continent-wide occupational health program (which ended October 2000) was about preventing strain injuries.
With the Australian example, you omit the essential fact that the government changed the name from RSI to OOS (Occupational Overuse Syndrome). So it is meaningless to say that the "epidemic....ended when the government ruled it would no longer compensate workers for the condition." The government officially abolished RSI therefore, nobody had it any more.
In 1992, a rueful editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia lamented how eagerly doctors had abandoned their patients: "We are left...with a residue of patients with chronic arm pain related to their work, some of whom are still working reduced hours and some of whom have been off work for months or years and are still in considerable distress."
But the key point, where your story is half-right, is that carpal tunnel syndrome was widely over-diagnosed for many years. Every patient with wrist pain got a CTS diagnosis, and too many of them had unnecessary surgery, which failed to correct their condition. JAMA reported in 1991 that 57 percent of post-op patients complained their symptoms returned within two years.
Contrary to your report, true CTS is not that common. In fact, the most common strain injury is tendinitis, which is still (alas) very much with us. So when Dr Stevens agrees that office workers' "neck, arm and upper back pain" is real, he is acknowledging the reality of strain injuries, or RSI.
We expect the NP to put a political spin on every story, but this is outrageous, even for you. Take the word "hysteria". If the Post bothered to mention that two-thirds of Workers' Comp claims for strain injuries are filed by women, then readers could judge for themselves how politically loaded the "hysteria" label is.
Despite the prestigious persons quoted, your reporter simply does not know what he is writing about, as demonstrated by the fact that he uses "RSI" and "carpal tunnel syndrome" interchangeably. The odd thing is that your story could be read as a tribute to the success of ergonomics, a science which has proved its worth in factories and offices all across the world.
Strain injuries can be excruciatingly painful and profoundly disabling, not to mention extremely expensive. Prevention protects employers and the public purse, as well as workers. That's why Republican administrations keep trying to implement ergonomics regulations. If your editors had made even a token effort towards balanced reporting, you'd know that.
Yours truly,
Penney Kome
Author, Wounded Workers: The Politics of Musculoskeletal Injuries (University
of Toronto Press, 1998) Copyright Penney Kome 2001
