Laptop Heat May Cause 'Toasted Skin Syndrome'

mrvook submitted an item that might affect a lot of you "Working with a laptop on one's lap for extended periods of time has been found to cause heat damage and skin discoloration in a handful of cases, prompting researchers examining the phenomenon to recommend thermal protection for laptop users and warnings labels on laptop device packaging." Only 10 cases have actually been reported, so this might just be a case of media hyping something, or it could be the end of the world with a generation of nerds doomed to sterility and crunchy crotches.

Comments

Warning labels suck

[IndustrialComplex]

Please no more warning labels. They are applied in non-removable paint on my car visor, my child's safety seat, and other rather annoying places.

Why the hell do I as a driver need to be warned about the dangers of... well I don't know what dangers they are warning me about anymore because they are so damned ubiquitous. Removable stickers are fine. Resale of the item means they won't have the warning? Make a website http://warnings.gov/

You go there, pull your product type from a dropdown list and it will have every warning you could possibly want to have on your product, all there in a singular location and available in any language you want, updated instantly.

Oddly enough, I think it was Jay Leno (could be wrong) complaining about how car manuals are nothing but 80 pages of warnings rather than content which you could use to operate/repair your vehicle. Please please please, no more warning labels. I've become immune and now only see them as a bright yellow stain on my upholstry.

Testicular cancer

[ylikone]

My cousin blames his testicular cancer on a decade of using a laptop resting over his crotch. Even though cancer does not run in his family (or mine) and I don't think I believe the laptop is to blame, it could be that it aggravated it.

Re:Testicular cancer

[TheMidget]

My cousin blames his testicular cancer on ...

Or maybe, he just didn't jack off enough?

That's why they don't call them laptops.

[chemicaldave]

Specifically referring to my horrendously flawed 1st generation 13" Macbook. Because of the heat generated it was marketed as a "notebook" and even comes with warnings against using it on your lap per the user guide. This has led to many a warm-lap, a melted "mag-safe" power cord, and just recently caused one of the plastic screw holes for the heatsink to actually shatter during use.

Re:That's why they don't call them laptops.

[quacking duck]

If there's one thing I don't like about Apple's mobile products it's their unwavering desire to shrink the enclosure thickness by bare millimeters with each new generation, without really compensating for reduced ability to dissipate heat.

I mean, would it have killed them to at least add vents to the sides of their notebooks? A single vent area can't suck in cool air and expel hot air well; if nothing else some of the hot air gets sucked right back in. And the vent's already half-blocked by the screen hinge!

Heat dissipation through the keyboard and palmrest also sucks--my palms have broken into heat-induced hives a few times, and the "don't put on lap" edict can't be adapted--what am I supposed to do, not use the keyboard and trackpad when I'm on the road!?

Well, it's not quite as slam-dunk as some believe

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually suffered from this. My laptop definitely got warm enough to grab my attention, but not so hot that I felt that it was burning. After a few weeks, I noticed a strange red splotchiness on my legs and it really was alarming at first. It's not like you pound yourself with a hammer and wonder why you have bruises, or burn yourself with an iron and wonder why you get blisters, it's much more subtle than that. After a day or so, I figured that it was the laptop and a couple of days of not using the laptop on my lap got rid of the symptoms.

So now, if it's going to be on my lap, I will sit cross-legged and rest only the edges on my legs, leaving an air-gap under most of the bottom.

Re:A more accurate headline

[canajin56]

That's not very accurate. It doesn't require bare skin, it's permanent not temporary, and it's not just a blotchy rash, it's a blotchy rash that can form weeping skin lesions and sores, and can become cancerous.