SMS Dangers
by Paul Ruppert
Inflamed Thumb Syndrome
Under the category of “man bites dog” and the growing cultural phenomenon of government policy wonks seeking to reduce all risks in life striving for an ultimate “nanny world,” hyper- mobile messaging texters beware of:
Texting tenosynovitis, aka “Text Messenger’s Thumb”
…que the ominous music, duh, duh, duh, dah….Seems two enterprising Kiwi physicians have published in the New Zealand Medical Journal an article on the dangers of mobile messaging! Citing treatment of a dental student who was sending over 100 SMS a day, the woman inflamed the tendons along the thumb and side of the wrist and filled the surrounding tissue with fluid. (Having spent a summer in college working at the Cleveland Clinic, here’s the pathophysiology: Flexor tendons of the hand run in tight fibroosseous tunnels. Visceral and parietal layers of synovium lubricate and nourish the tendons. These layers usually are collapsed unless infection, which follows the path of least resistance along the tendon sheaths or inflammation, is present, thus causing the tenosynovitis. Impressed, eh 
Not a limited Case?
The physicians cite (see “case notes”) two other documented cases of “texting tenosynovitis”, one a school-aged child in Singapore and a 13-year-old girl in Australia. The authors of the journal report, Emma Storr and Mark Stringer, said tenosynovitis was likely to be more common than thought, given the popularity of sending SMSs. Do ya think ?
Clive Thompson of the New York Times seems to have been the first in the mass media to address this phenomenon. Covering an emerging medical phenomenon, he interviews Dr. Robert Bacon, an in house chiropractor at Rogers.
Dr. Bacon says he can recognize the symptoms of Text Messager’s Thumb, right away: ”Employees coming in complaining of sore thumbs.” [Wow, that's insightful doctor] Bacon, a chiropractor for Rogers Wireless in Toronto, says that over 18 months he handed out 16 ”thumb braces” to help employees who have inflamed the tendons that snake along the hand and wrist — a painful condition known as ”tenosynovitis.”
The culprit? Our favorite super snack communication, the “incessant” ( a little harsh there Mr. NYT ) ”text messenging.” Seems with peripatetic students (between 12 to med school!) and workers sending messages all day long as they walk down the hallway or ride the subway around the world is creating a 21st-century centric health hazard: text messenger’s thumb.
If our thumbs are feeling strained, it is an indicator of a clear cultural evolution from this writer’s perspective. The thumb has become our most important digit.
In Japan, where kids band together in ”thumb tribes,” one company actually invented a phone-style keypad that plugs into your computer, because kids now prefer that to the traditional (and more ergonomic) qwerty keyboard. Even as I write this in a tethered state, I’m navigating the functions with a thumb pointer. Since young people are the most fanatic texters, the medical community is reflecting their worry that we’re on the verge of a new tenosynovitis outbreak. ”They’ll be developing workplace-style injuries before they’ve ever set foot in a workplace,” says Andrew Chadwick, head of the British Repetitive Strain Injury Association. Now, that’s a policy wonk’s brain running full tilt on how he can create a new government program addressing the dangers of SMS!
Virgin Mobile UK has even started an ad campaign called ”How to Practice Safe Text,” offering shoulder-shrugging exercises and a phone-shaped squeeze toy in hopes of getting its subscribers to change their hand-crippling ways. Imagine what will occur when mobile phone use is available airborne and the airlines are including pre-roll thumb exercises before the movie.
Seems we’re not biologicially evolving as fast as our technology.
Now, ask yourself this:”How do I ring a door bell?”
A) If it is by pushing it with your thumb, you’re a “post-mobilian” human.
B) If you use your forefinger, you’re a “pre-thumbian” human. 
Your turn, what do you think of the health threats of tenosynovitis?
Thanks for your readership during 2007!
