Watch Out! Resting Your Laptop On Your Laps Can Cause ‘Toasted Skin Syndrome’

Quick, tell me, are you reading Mediaite with your laptop sitting, you know, on top of your lap? Well, you might want to shuffle it to the side because, in addition to the oft-rumored sperm count reduction, your Mac Book Pro or whatever could also be afflicting you with the strangely delicious sounding “Toasted Leg Syndrome.” So, unless you want to end up childless with permanently blotchy legs, you might want to go to the trouble of putting the computer on the desk for once.

The findings come from a report by Swiss researchers in the medical journal Pediatrics. They cite a number of instances where users found “sponge-like patterns” on their thighs. Sexy.

From New York’s CBS 2:

“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.
The condition also can be caused by overuse of heating pads and other heat sources that usually aren’t hot enough to cause burns. It’s generally harmless but can cause permanent skin darkening. 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 They do not cite any skin cancer cases linked to laptop use, but suggest, to be safe, placing a carrying case or other heat shield under the laptop if you have to hold it in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.”

So you can’t use laptops on your laps? This is clearly the worst case of dangerous advertising since the release of the poorly received EyeSharpNeedles. Whatever the case, get those computers off your laps. We want all of our readers to be healthy so you can continue to read our site and show it to the children that you’re physically capable of having.

(via Drudge Report):

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