Blamed for... Hand-arm vibrating syndrome
In 2002 a 15-year old boy suffered for two years with painful hands before a doctor diagnosed his symptoms as those of hand-arm vibrating syndrome (aka vibration white finger). Initially a seemingly innocuous complaint, the story grabbed some headlines as it was thought to be the first published case of the condition in someone so young - normally sufferers had worked for years with vibrating tools.
So what sort of vibrating tool would a male adolescent keep gripped in his hands? Yes, it could only be a rumbling game controller - in this case a PS2 DualShock. But the swollen handed gamer wasn't a casual user. No. He played for up to seven hours per day. The doctors were rightly concerned: "The seven hours a day that our patient reported is excessive and exceeds the manufacturer's recommendation, but we must assume that this is not an uncommon occurrence."
Verdict: Videogames - guilty or not guilty?
Guilty, but only in this one freak case. Like many pad handlers we've been playing regularly with vibrating controllers for just under a decade and we can categorically state that our hands are in no way painful or swollen. They get a bit sweaty when we're excited, but they definitely do not swell. So, thank God that the predicted hand-arm vibrating syndrome epidemic never happened and the fear surrounding rumbling pads duly fizzled out. We can't imagine how we'd ever manage if our pads didn't shake. Er, hang on...
