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Resting laptop on legs can
damage skin
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Beware — people who work with a laptop on their
legs can permanently damage their skin.
A medical report has found that placing the devices next to the skin for long
periods can lead to "toasted skin syndrome", an unusual-looking mottled skin
condition caused by long-term heat exposure.
In one case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discolouration
on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several
months, reports the Telegraph.
"He sensed that the laptop got hot on the left side. But he still did not change
its position," said Swiss researchers.
Another case involved a Virginia law student in the US who sought treatment for
the mottled discoloration on her leg, according to the journal Paediatrics.
Kimberley Salkey, who treated the young woman, couldn't work out the source of
the problem until she learned the student spent about six hours a day working
with her computer propped on her lap. The temperature underneath registered 125
degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).
That case, from 2007, is one of laptop-related cases reported in medical
journals in the past six years.
The condition also can be caused by overuse of heating pads and other heat
sources that usually aren't hot enough to cause burns.
In very rare cases, it can cause damage leading to skin cancers, said Swiss
researchers Andreas Arnold and Peter Itin from the University Hospital Basel. —
IANS
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