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Josh Rogers of the The Portland Phoenix reports that academically, the state appears to be going in the right direction with its iBook program for middle-schoolers, but the risk of major health problems is being ignored.

Under the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), a four-year, $37.5-million deal that former–Governor Angus King made with Apple, every seventh-grader (and next year, eighth-grader) in the state is issued an iBook laptop computer.

However, Rogers writes:

These are thoughts that have crossed my mind as well. I’ve watched laptop-using friends and relatives develop hollow chests, rounded shoulders, and various ergomomic-related ache and pain issues over long hours at the keyboard.

Laptop computers are superb tools, but for day-in day-out use they do have some issues,. Because the laptop monitor is attached to the keyboard, if you place the computer high enough for a comfortable viewing angle, the keyboard will be too high for maintaining healthy wrist posture. Conversely, if you place the laptop low enough for the proper elbows-at-90 degrees-wrists-flat body English, your neck will be cranked down at an uncomfortable angle.

Back in the days when laptop computers were used mainly as portable auxiliaries to desktop workstations, this didn’t cause significant problems, because few people worked long hours on their notebook machines. However, nowadays, one in three computers Apple sells is a laptop, and many serve as a main or only computer.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control recommends against using laptops as primary computers unless they are used in a way consistent with neutral posture: “The monitor should be placed so the top of the screen is at or just below eye level when seated in an upright position...Maintaining neutral postures will reduce stress and strain to the musculoskeletal system.”

One study concluded the most significant problem caused by laptops was neck strain.

Alan Hedge, Prof. of Ergonomics Cornell Univ., who is quoted extensively in Josh Rogers’ article, advises: “’Hunt and peck’ typing causes your head to bend forward to locate the keys causing neck strain. Raising the rear of the keyboard to the steepest angle lets you see the keys so much better and because you use your whole arm to hunt and peck, wrist strain is not the issue, neck strain is.... Beg, borrow or steal an external keyboard and mouse for desk work. ....be sure to elevate and position the screen to approximate looking at a real monitor.”

That’s what I do with my laptops these days, but laptop stands and external keyboards/mice would not be a practical option for classroom laptops.

There is also another health related issue to classroom laptops that I’ve never seen addressed in any media coverage of laptops in the classroom -- which is chemical emissions. I love my new iBook, but the thing reeks worse than any new computer I’ve ever had in the house. I’m extremely chemically sensitive, and have to use any recent computer -- laptop or desktop -- with forced ventilation away from my work area, but my wife, who is not environmentally ill, says that the fumes from the iBook give her an instant headache when she walks into the room where it is, even when it’s not running. The compounded effect of 30 or 35 of the little darlings in a single room boggles the mind.

This isn’t as exotic an issue as some would imagine. Iris R. Bell, MD, PhD., director of research at the University of Arizona’s Program in Integrative Medicine estimates that Multiple Chemical Sensitivities affects four to six percent of the population and that between 15 to 30 percent have less severe intolerance to chemicals in the environment.

You can read Josh Rogers’ article here:
http://www.portlandphoenix.com/archive/features/03/02/21/feat_laptop.html

For another perspective on this issue, see Bill DeVille’s letter in Moore’s MailBag today.

CM

Charles W. Moore

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