INCREASE SLOWS IN REPETITIVE STRESS AILMENTS.Byline: Scripps-McClatchy Western Service After years of rapid growth, the nationwide epidemic of repetitive stress injuries repetitive stress injury or repetitive strain injury (RSI), injury caused by repeated movement of a particular part of the body. Often seen in workers whose physical routine is unvaried, RSI has become epidemic since computers have entered the may finally be slowing. Figures from U.S. and California workplaces show reported cases of such painful ailments as carpal tunnel syndrome carpal tunnel syndrome: see repetitive stress injury. carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) Painful condition caused by repetitive stress to the wrist over time. and tendinitis declined substantially in 1995, the most recent year from which figures are available. Driving the trend, some experts suspect, is increasing awareness of the problem among bosses and workers. Since the early 1980s, incidents of numbing ailments from repetitive tasks have been the fastest growing, on-the-job medical problem, spurring a flood of lawsuits and worker's compensation claims. The response in California has been a push to adopt the nation's first ergonomics ergonomics, the engineering science concerned with the physical and psychological relationship between machines and the people who use them. The ergonomicist takes an empirical approach to the study of human-machine interactions. standards aimed at preventing muscle sprains, tendon damage and nerve entrapment Noun 1. nerve entrapment - repeated and long-term nerve compression (usually in nerves near joints that are subject to inflammation or swelling) carpal tunnel syndrome - a painful disorder caused by compression of a nerve in the carpal tunnel; characterized by . But recent statistics raise the possibility that those conditions may be part of a waning trend. Disorders associated with repeated trauma dropped 7 percent nationwide in 1995 - the first decline in 13 years. In California, cumulative trauma disorders cumulative trauma disorder Repetitive motion injury, repetitive stress disorder Occupational medicine Any of a group of conditions characterized by repeated stress on muscles, bones, tendons, nerves, which have psychologic and/or physical ramifications–eg, fell 9 percent to 28,600 cases. That, too, was the first decline since 1982. |
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