MSNBC.com published
this commentary, which might be worthy of more reporting:
Cases of carpal tunnel syndrome, the white-collar epidemic of the '90s,
have plummeted in recent years,
according to labor statistics. What happened? Did all those ergonomic
keyboards cure us of our aches and pains or is something else going on?
Something else is going on.
For one thing, the lumping of nearly every patient with an achy arm into
the carpal tunnel category has diminished, and other trendy,
multisyllabic diagnoses such as repetitive stress syndrome (RSS),
cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) and musculoskeletal disease (MSD) are
filling the gap. Secondly, measures taken in the workplace -- job
rotation, stretch breaks and attention to ergonomics have indeed had an
effect -- even if what had been labeled carpal tunnel was
in reality plain old tendonitis, bursitis, spasm, or even muscular lack
of conditioning.
Unquestionably,
workers engaged in repetitive work many hours each day experience a
variety of musculoskeletal pains. So do gardeners, waitresses and
baseball players. That does not mean the work causes the problem.
Association is different from causation.
