Most laptop owners are familiar with what happens when they use their computers on their laps. Things can get pretty warm and it doesn't take long for it to get uncomfortable. While most of us would move to the coffee table or stick a cushion under the laptop when things start to get sweaty, it seems not everyone takes the same measures and it's resulting in laptop-induced injuries.
The journal Pediatrics this week warned of the dangers of resting a hot laptop on your legs for extended periods of time and highlighted a couple of cases where it had resulted in erythema abigne, a skin condition the journal describes as "a reticular, pigmented, sometimes telangiectatic dermatosisthat is caused by prolonged exposure to a heat or infrared source." Laptop-induced rythema abigne is now being referred to as "Toasted Skin Syndrome."
The journal discussed one case in particular, which involved a 12-year-old boy who presented with the condition on his left thigh. He is said to be the youngest of the 10 reported patients diagnosed with the laptop-induced dermatosis since it was first noticed in 2004. CBC reports that the boy was using his computer for a few hours a day for several months. The condition is said to be harmless but the discoloration can be permanent and in some cases, the skin damage could lead to cancers.
Computer users can prevent Toasted Skin Syndrome by placing a laptop-cooling mat under the device when it's resting on their legs, or by using a laptop case or something similar to act as a barrier for the heat. Alternatively, you could move to a desk to coffee table before the bottom of the laptop approaches 52 degrees Celsius (just over 125 degrees Fahrenheit) as the laptop of one Toasted Skin Syndrome suffer regularly did.
Source: Journal of Pediatrics, CBC
*Image credit: The Associated Press
