Byline: Peter T. Kilborn New York Times
For nine years, Paula Tydryszewski has operated a video display terminal in New Jersey's tax collection office.
She types numbers and names from tax returns at woodpecker speeds into a keyboard that is tied to a big computer in the center of the room.
Tydryszewski and the other 111 full-time data entry clerks do white-collar work with blue-collar rhythms and discipline.
They are tethered to their tasks by machines that let them do vastly more work than they could have done 15 or 20 years ago with paper and ledgers and typewriters.
Like Tydryszewski, an increasing number of workers around the country say they are suffering from ailments known as cumulative-trauma disorders or repetitive-motion injuries as a result of their jobs.
These potentially disabling ailments, which are not related to radiation from computers, include cysts, inflammation of tendons, nerve damage that can lead to a loss of feeling in the fingers, and arm or shoulder pain.
Occupational health specialists, labor unions and the federal government say tens of millions of workers, such as keyboard operators, are at risk.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said …
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