Thaindian News

Oct 4 (THAINDIAN NEWS) If sitting with your laptop across your legs while you work or play video games is a habit of yours, then recent reports may cause you to rethink your actions. This can cause a condition which is known as “toasted skin syndrome” which can give the exposed skin a mottled look. Even though the heat is not enough to burn, the skin damage can be serious, and may even lead to cancer or low sperm count.

One such case was that of a twelve year old boy who saw that his skin was discolored with a sponge-like pattern after he had played video games for several hours a day during a few months.

According to the Swiss researchers who explained the case in an article which was posted in the Journal of Pediatrics on Monday, “He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of that, he did not change its position.”

Another patient, a woman from Virginia, puzzled her doctor when she went in to complain about the mottled spot in her leg. Doctor Kimberly Slakey soon discovered that the student had been sitting for six hours a day with the laptop in her lap, with the temperature of the pc reaching 125 degrees on her leg.

This condition can also be caused from other heat sources such as heating pads, and although it is usually harmless, it can cause other problems. This can increase the chances of skin cancer. Elevated temperatures near the scrotum can also effect the sperm count in men, and eventually lead to infertility.

Workers who have to be exposed to heat at work, such as glass blowers, or bakers, as well as those who huddle close to heaters for long periods of time have also been treated before for this condition.

Dr Anthony J Manicini, from the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago states that he cannot say that laptops cause skin cancer, simply because it is too easy to avoid being exposed for long periods of time by placing something between the leg, and the pc, such as a table, or case. He also said that “Toasted Skin Condition” is known to increase the chances of getting squamous skin cancer, which is an aggressive form of the disease.