The Computer User's Survival Guide: Staying Healthy in a High Tech World [Paperback]

Joan Stigliani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1995

You probably suspect, on some level, that computers might be hazardous to your health. You might vaguely remember a study that you read years ago about miscarriages being more frequent for data entry operators. Or you might have run into a co-worker wearing splints and talking ominously about Workers' Comp insurance. Or you might notice that when you use a computer too long, you get stiff and your eyes get dry.

But who wants to worry about such things? Surely, the people wearing splints must be malingerers who don't want to work? Surely, the people who design keyboards and terminals must be working to change their products if they are unsafe? Surely, so long as you're a good worker and keep your mind on your job, nothing bad will happen to you?

The bad news is: You can be hurt by working at a computer. The good news is that many of the same factors that pose a risk to you are within your own control. You can take action on your own to promote your own health -- whether or not your terminal manufacturer, keyboard designer, medical provider, safety trainer, and boss are working diligently to protect you.

The Computer User's Survival Guide looks squarely at all the factors that affect your health on the job, including positioning, equipment, work habits, lighting, stress, radiation, and general health.

Through this guide you will learn:

• a continuum of neutral postures that you can at utilize at different work tasks
• how radiation drops off with distance and what electrical equipment is responsible for most exposure
• how modern office lighting is better suited to working on paper than on a screen, and what you can do to prevent glare
• simple breathing techniques and stretches to keep your body well oxygenated and relaxed, even when you sit all day
• how reading from a screen puts unique strains on your eyes and what kind of vision breaks will keep you most productive and rested
• what's going on "under the skin" when your hands and arms spend much of the day mousing and typing, and how you can apply that knowledge to prevent overuse injuries

The Computer User's Survival Guide is not a book of gloom and doom. It is a guide to protecting yourself against health risks from your computer, while boosting your effectiveness and your enjoyment of work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Computers are awfully useful tools, but they cease to be effective when your eyes burn, your neck seizes up, and repetitive injury syndrome makes lifting your hands a lesson in pain. Stigliani's lucid and insightful guide is therefore a survival aid of the most necessary sort, detailing not only how to situate your computer and self to avoid injury, but how to cope with the stresses that get internalized into such incapacitating ailments.

From the Publisher

You probably suspect, on some level, that computers might be hazardous to your health. You might vaguely remember a study that you read years ago about miscarriages being more frequent for data entry operators. Or you might have run into a co-worker wearing splints and talking ominously about Workers' Comp insurance. Or you might notice that when you use a computer too long, you get stiff and your eyes get dry. But who wants to worry about such things? Surely, the people wearing splints must be malingerers who don't want to work? Surely, the people who design keyboards and terminals must be working to change their products if they are unsafe? Surely, so long as you're a good worker and keep your mind on your job, nothing bad will happen to you? The bad news is: You can be hurt by working at a computer. The good news is that many of the same factors that pose a risk to you are within your own control. You can take action on your own to promote your own health -- whether or not your terminal manufacturer, keyboard designer, medical provider, safety trainer, and boss are working diligently to protect you. The Computer User's Survival Guide looks squarely at all the factors that affect your health on the job, including positioning, equipment, work habits, lighting, stress, radiation, and general health. Through this guide you will learn: a continuum of neutral postures that you can at utilize at different work tasks how radiation drops off with distance and what electrical equipment is responsible for most exposure how modern office lighting is better suited to working on paper than on a screen, and what you can do to prevent glare simple breathing techniques and stretches to keep your body well oxygenated and relaxed, even when you sit all day how reading from a screen puts unique strains on your eyes and what kind of vision breaks will keep you most productive and rested what's going on "under the skin" when your hands and arms spend much of the day mousing and typing, and how you can apply that knowledge to prevent overuse injuries The Computer User's Survival Guide is not a book of gloom and doom. It is a guide to protecting yourself against health risks from your computer, while boosting your effectiveness and your enjoyment of work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st ed edition (October 8, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565920309
• ISBN-13: 978-1565920309
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,517,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A whole lot carefully wrapped into one book, June 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Computer User's Survival Guide: Staying Healthy in a High Tech World (Paperback)

The "Computer User's Survival Guide" makes a great package!

I really think "The Computer User's Survival Guide" is splendid. I frightfully read the book, worried that I'd ignore all the information jumping off the pages.

The chapter headings and subheadings outline every aspect of how to healthfully use your computer. The author Joan Stigliani writes in depth about the health implications of computer use. For example, her coverage of ordinary work stress includes detailed discussion of what stress is, its signs, its consequences, its contexts, and how to reduce it in every context that commonly causes it.

An appendix covers equipment selection for work with computers. A second appendix includes pointers to further resources relevant to the topics her book covers.

Some people I've known who work in the computer industry claimed that their prior exposure to carpal tunnel or repetitive stress injury educated them about how to properly use a computer. And they didn't follow my suggestions to read "The Computer User's Survival Guide". And they have or will go through the same problems again, thinking that they already know enough to avoid their problems again.

Some physical problems of a computer user require a simple adjustment to the height of the chair they're sitting on. Those problems can be solved quickly and easily. But if a person doesn't know any better, they may never solve those problems. Ms. Stigliani's book addresses such physical problems efficiently, including what those problems are, how they are caused, and how to solve them.

All computer users can learn how to solve their physical computer-use problems by reading "The Computer User's Survival Guide". But you need to have some conviction to do so, at least enough to buy the book and read it.