Using a mouse all day is an unnatural task – 3M’s ergonomic mouse puts the wrist and hand in a more natural position
3M Ergonomic Mouse
Holding a mouse in your hand and clicking repeatedly can cause hand and wrist pain. Eventually that leads to Repetitive Motion injury and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Lost time to Repetitive Motion injuries out ranks all other work place injuries.
The 3M Ergonomic Mouse virtually eliminates the stress and pain of a regular mouse. It is a recommended solution for people with arthritis in the hands and wrists.
Your hand is held in a more natural joy-stick position, avoiding the 90 turn in the wrist which can pinch the nerves in the carpal tunnel. 3M calls this the neutral position.
Repetitive Motion
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that repetitive motion (RM) injuries resulted in an average of 23 days of sick leave in 2002. That makes RM the costliest workplace injury. Falls, by comparison, resulted in an average of only 14 days lost.
“During 1998, an estimated three of every 10,000 workers lost time from work because of carpal tunnel syndrome,” reports the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke “Half of these workers missed more than 10 days of work. The average lifetime cost of carpal tunnel syndrome, including medical bills and lost time from work, is estimated to be about $30,000 for each injured worker.”
Clicking a mouse actual uses muscles in the forearm along with the hand. Try it. Turn your hands outward so that the palms are facing each other. Flex your fingers and watch and feel the activity in the forearms.
When the wrist is turned 90 degrees and flat on the desk, those muscles, nerves and tendons are pinched into a smaller area. Repeated mouse clicks irritates the nerves inside the carpal tunnel in the wrist. Irritated nerves get inflamed and cause the pain of carpal tunnel.
Surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome is largely ineffective if people return to the same repetitive activity which can mean no more use of a mouse. It’s not only clerical workers who are at risk. Programmers, writers, journalists, photo and video editors, and digital recording engineers who would without a control surface can suffer from too much use of a mouse.
The 3M Ergonomic Mouse avoids the 90 turn of the wrist and allows the hand/arm to function naturally.
By 2001, I had carpal tunnel pain in both hands and wrists. My hands and fingers would cramp within minutes on the computer. A physiotherapist suggested the 3M Ergonomic Mouse and I’ve never had the pain again.
Keyboards are also a source of carpal tunnel syndrome. There are some $200 to $600 keyboards that people swear by.
Illustration 3M
With the 3M mouse, the palm rests on the base. The rest is pure pleasure.
In more than ten years of use, my carpal tunnel has never come back. I keep a Microsoft mouse on the left but it still hurts to use it. The 3M mouse comes in two sizes, small and large. To determine the best size, try the size chart.
The 3M mouse has click select, left and right-click but does not have a wheel. Squeezing the trigger creates a wheel function.
Don’t buy the wireless one since there is nothing to keep it from falling and breaking. I broke two of wireless 3M devices they fell to the floor. The cord also keeps the mouse on the desk.
There is a good overview of carpal tunnel on ComputerWorld that takes the standard route to a cure.
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