Laptops can "toast" skin, say researchers

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 5 Oct 2010 at 08:43

Laptops can toast the skin, leading to a condition similar to that once found in glass-blowers and bakers.

While warm thighs will come as no surprise to anyone who's ever balanced a laptop on their legs to get some work done, Swiss researchers say longer term exposure to such heat can lead to "toasted skin syndrome."

Such a condition is normally harmless, leading to skin discoloration that normally fades over time but in rare cases was permanent, the researchers at the University Hospital Basel wrote in the journal Pediatrics.

They added that getting "toasted skin" required resting a computer on the lap for several hours a day over several months, so it isn't likely to affect anyone stuck balancing a laptop on the knees during a flight or at a meeting.

“Computer-induced lesions are typically found on only one leg because the optical drives of laptops are located on the left side,” the researchers said. “The computer placed on a lap may completely or partially occlude the ventilation-fan exhaust.”

The main case studied in the research involved a 12-year-old boy who used his computer in such a way for a few hours a day over several months.

Only ten cases have been published since the condition was first attributed to laptops in 2004. "The popularity of laptop computers will likely increase this diagnosis in the future," the study researchers warned.