NEW YORK (CBS 2/AP) – Have you ever worked on your laptop computer with it sitting on your lap, heating up your legs? If so, you might want to rethink that habit. Doing it a lot can lead to “toasted skin syndrome,” an unusual-looking mottled skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure, according to medical reports.

In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months.

“He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of that, he did not change its position,” Swiss researchers reported in an article published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Another case involved a Virginia law student who sought treatment for the mottled discoloration on her leg.

Dr. Kimberley Salkey, who treated the young woman, was stumped 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.

That case, from 2007, is one of 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical journals in the past six years. In very rare cases, it can cause damage leading to skin cancers, said the Swiss researchers, Drs. Andreas Arnold and Peter Itin from University Hospital Basel. They do not cite any skin cancer cases linked to laptop use, but suggest, to be safe, placing a carrying case or other heat shield under the laptop if you have to hold it in your lap.

Salkey, an assistant dermatology professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said that under the microscope, the affected skin resembles skin damaged by long-term sun exposure. A medical report several years ago found that men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to infertility.




  1. jescott418 says:

    This is how dumb we have become. You have to wonder why the heat and discomfort was not enough for these idiots to find another position or invest in a laptop desk. Common sense is dead!

  2. NobodySpecial says:

    A Californian is sueing the state for what he is calling hot-sun-outdoors syndrome.

    The person went outside in the sun all summer and claims he fell it hot on his skin.

  3. t0llyb0ng says:

    They never heard of a lap-desk. That kills me, how dumb it is.

    A lap-desk will also allow the machine to inhale air through the bottom vents, which it needs to do.

  4. Lindsay Lohan says:

    When I see the phrase “fire crotch”, something else comes to mind.

  5. rgspro says:

    When I say the title, I first thought of re-doing the lyrics for Chestnuts roasting on a open fire to My nuts roasting on my Macbook pro, while I play halo all day long. Well, it’s a rough draft, but seriously, I would really like to see a photo of the idiot sitting for 6 hours a day with a laptop on their lap. This person needs to go out side for and exercise!

  6. Special Ed says:

    ♫ Chet’s nuts roasting on an open Dell. ♪

  7. Counterweight says:

    A fool and his nuts are soon parbroiled.

  8. chris says:

    I’m feeling HOT, HOT, HOT!

  9. Cursor_ says:

    I think it is a good thing. Especially the infertility part.

    We don’t want people that can’t shift a laptop from burning their testes to breed anyway.

    Think of the lives we will save from stupidity.

    Cursor_

  10. Glenn E. says:

    A good case for bring back asbestos, for pants.

  11. Benjamin says:

    My netbook will put out heat, but it doesn’t get that hot. I never hold it near my crotch. I hold it closer to my knees. A stupid story about stupid people.

  12. Rich says:

    I wouldn’t worry so much about the heat as much as the electrostatic and RF energy that’s doing who-knows-what to my tadpoles and tadpole-generating facilities. I never keep my netbook on my lap!


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