Repetitive strain injury

Texting or playing games with your phone

With regard to personal health, O2 is aware that continuous or excessive texting or game playing with a mobile phone can have the potential to cause harm. As with touch typing and other forms of hand-operated machinery and equipment, users must be aware of the risks of repetitive strain injury (RSI), for example.

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is an umbrella term referring to various kinds of injuries to muscles, tendons or nerves caused by repetitive movement of a part of the body. It has not been scientifically proven that texting and playing games on a mobile phone can cause RSI,  however, we recommend that you:

• Do not grip the phone tightly.
• Press the buttons lightly.
• Try to use both hands to spread the load.
• Keep your hands close to your body when holding the phone.
• Hold the phone up in front of you to reduce flexing of the neck.
• Make use of the special features in the handset which minimise the number of buttons which have to be pressed, such as message templates and predictive text.
• Take lots of breaks to stretch and relax.

However, if symptoms such as persistent or recurring discomfort, pain, throbbing, aching, tingling, numbness, burning sensation, stiffness are experienced, do not ignore these warning signs, promptly see a qualified health professional.