How computers have fought back

The rise of LCD monitors has gone some way to tackling the dangerous and less-documented side of computers that hurts users quicker than the fastest virus.



For being smaller and lighter than bulky CRT monitors, their LCD replacements have reduced the number of physical injuries they cause from a record high in 2003.



Yet the ubiquitous PC monitor is still the main culprit of computer-related injuries, which, in terms of the number of people bearing them in hospital, have risen seven-fold.



Such was the finding yesterday from researchers in Ohio, whose study of 78,000 reports at US hospitals of IT-related injuries between 1994 and 2006 was released.



Published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, the study shows the common causes were tripping over PC cables and precariously-placed monitors falling.



Overwhelmingly, the injuries were caused in the home, where the number of serious accidents rose 732% over the period; about twice the growth rate of home PC ownership.



In Britain, computer-related injuries at home rose from around 800 in 1995 to 2,100 in 2002, and, like the US, children were the likeliest victims to need hospital treatment.



The study found the over-60s were the likeliest adults to suffer a PC-related accident, yet all users hurt their hands or feet the most, apart from children who typically had head injuries.