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Retired engineer says deformities caused by cars, video-games, crayons, computers(#2 in series of 2)
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The driver of a Chevrolet Astro van suffered from damages to his fimgers and hands.
Excessive force, says retired automotive engineer Mike Tomich, is referred to as rebound force (Rf), and can be found in each small segment of a movement process, or performance force (Pf).
Pain and deformation in adults can manifest itself in the shoulders, neck, and lower back, as well as the hands. Often, what is explained away as arthritis is really caused by the most innocuous of reasons, says Tomich, and it can happen within 6,000 miles of driving a car.
What is it? It's steering wheels on cars.
"The physical therapy clinic in association with the Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center in Saginaw, has seen a 400 percent increase in suffering caused by painful shoulders, backs and necks," Tomich said. He attributes it to high-effort steering.
Tomich found evidence of this in people even after retirement.
When testing a 70-year-old carpenter, he said, "Earl drove a stiff steering-wheeled vehicle in Florida, and began having shoulder, back and neck pain."
Similar results happened with a 50-year-old man with a stiff-wheeled Ford Taurus, when it caused an unnatural parting of the fingers between the index and middle fingers. His symptoms included back/shoulder/neck pain, tingling/numb fingers and carpal tunnel. A 69-year-olf woman who commuted 100+ miles daily between Port Huron and Detroit, seven days per week in a 2005 Cadillac, was diagnosed by her doctor as having rheumatoid arthritis. Her enlarged twisted, bending fingers occurred from her habit of holding the steering wheel between her ring and pinky fingers.
Tomich compares the Ford Taurus high-effort steering to the equally problematic Chevrolet Impala and Blazer, Mercury Cougar, Chevy Astro van, Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, Saturn, Nissen, Honda, BMW, newer Bentleys, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Toyota Solara, Buick, Pontiac Grand Prix and Grand Am, Pontiac Sunbird, Jeeps, 2005 Dodge Magnum, 2000 Dodge Intrepid, 1995 Dodge Intrepid and numerous other manufacturers and models, including trucks.
When fingers bend backwards, Tomich says, it is from gripping thick steering wheels with the palm of the hand and fingertips. This happens when a wheel is too large in diameter, has an oval grip contour, and prevents any hand parts but the fingertips and palms from making contact when grasping the steering wheel.
Modern steering wheels often separate fingers unnaturally.
The condition, says Tomich, occurs in some degree to all drivers.
"It happens within a few months with small-framed people, and is contingent on steering resistance values," he said.
Turning pages in magazines, opening jars, and other small movements can then become excruciatingly difficult to perform due to steering-caused damages.
If you combine a stiff suspension, road noise, drive-line vibrations, and resistant steering - added to a long trip - Tomich says it can add up to significant deformities.
The hand back and palm of a man with irreversible skeletal damage.
"If you can't turn your steering wheel with one finger, ask the manufacturer to reduce the effort to 'zero' or to purchase the vehicle (back) from you," said Tomich. "They should not be selling vehicles that cause permanent skeletal and soft tissue damage."
Having spent the past five years sending communications to the auto industry's high-rollers and the UAW, some are finally starting to listen, and some -- like Ford -- have indicated plans to enact re-designing in order to to eliminate the problem.
But, Tomich says is could take years, or even decades, to fix the problems when tooling and machinery as well as profit-conscious boards of companies are more concerned with what they see as their bottom line.
"Ford Motor Company is taking a major step in improving health in America by eliminating the 'high effort' steering and replacing it with 'low effort steering,'" said Tomich. Also, HP Computers has added "skeletal injury" warnings to their computers, although it doesn't mention, or exemplify, children developing bent and twisted arthritic fingers with functional losses.
"The video gaming, coloring and computer industries have known about the children's finger deformities since we informed them of our work in May, 2002," he said. "Microsoft's executives visited Senator Joe Lieberman's office on November 14, 2007 and discussed children's finger deformities from gaming. Washington's leading politicians -- including Senators Kennedy, Lieberman, Clinton, Obama, McCain -- as well as the CDC and U.S. Consumer Protection Agency have all known about it."
Tomich's website logs viewers, tracking large numbers of visitors -- such as the 15,000 in a single week -- and serious pressure has been applied by some people or companies to ignore his efforts and have others do the same. So, SOMEbody is watching this play out, but a lot of people may be banking on his failure.
Meanwhile adult pole-dancers also experience hand problems.
"Fingers are off-perpendicular to the cross axis of the hand," said Tomich. "This is the result of dynamic forces that are generated from the suspension of their body weight while grasping the pole."
Leg problems are another worry. Tomich asserts that former General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner ended up with bent and twisted legs after a habit of jerking his foot up and down when sitting in his car. Terming it Nervous Leg Syndrome, it's one malady we can't get away from seeing prescriptions for on television, and which is often diagnosed as arthritis, a form of insomnia or "nerves."
In a parting warning, if you do approach a doctor to have your hands looked at, Tomich also discusses how hand x-rays are usually performed by medical technicians. He says that it is customary for them to straighten the hand prior to taking the x-ray. That, he suggests, can vary knuckle parallelism by up to 10 degrees, changing the image and affecting diagnoses.
Pressing the hand to the x-ray table is a better method, as even five degrees translates to between 1/4" to 2 1/2" difference in assessment.
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