By Nithya Lingampalli from SatherHealth.org

It’s a common experience to use your laptop for an hour and then touch it, only to find that it is burning hot. If it were placed on a surface away from your body such as a desk, the heat would not be of any importance, unless it got so hot it crashed your computer! However, if placed on your lap, as the case with most people, it could have serious repercussions in terms of your health.

Laptops generate so much heat because of a feature we love and intentionally look for in a purchase; fast microprocessor speed. Normally, the heat is removed from the device by means of ventilation shafts directly beneath the laptop which are exposed by the protruding stands on all four corners. Yet, when placed in your lap, the laptop sinks into your skin, and without even a slight degree of separation, the ventilated heat comes in direct contact with your skin and organs, leading to disastrous outcomes.

The most common resulting damage is to the skin. A condition called “toasted skin syndrome” occurs as your skin is kept in close contact with a heat source, even through a clothing barrier, for a prolonged period of time. CBS News published an article in which international cases of laptop burns had been listed, showing it to be a prevalent problem especially among youth. In the medical journal Pediatrics, Swiss researchers reported on the case of a 12 year-old boy who developed skin discoloration on his thigh after setting his laptop there for several hours a day to play videogames. Although the heat exposure is not intense enough to cause burns, it can cause discoloration and permanent skin damage.

Research also reveals that the affected area sustains damage similar to that caused by long-term sun exposure, an observation which leads researchers to believe that severe laptop heat exposure may even lead to cancer in some cases. Although it is highly unlikely, squamous skin cancer (more dangerous than other forms) can occur due to prolonged skin inflammation.

Using laptops on one’s lap is significantly more dangerous for men than it is for women because it can affect their fertility. When balancing a laptop on one’s lap, the thighs are pressed again each other, thus generating heat. This heat combined with that ventilated from the laptop serves to increase the temperature of the scrotum (an organ that is externally located in order to keep semen at a lower temperature than the body), which then leads to testicular dysfunction. Even a 1 degree Celsius increase in scrotum temperature decreases the production of healthy sperm by 40%, and researchers at State University of New York at Stony Brook have found that only one hour of laptop usage can lead to an average temperature increase of 2.6 – 2.8 degrees Celsius. Men’s prolonged usage of laptops in such a manner thereby has a drastic impact on their fertility.

Although all these symptoms are exceptionally severe, they are brought on by continuous exposure to laptop heat over an extended period of time. If you are on your laptop for a couple of hours a day, it is highly unlikely that you would contract these symptoms to the same extent. However, in the interest of preventive health, it is better to be safe than sorry!

The placement of laptops on one’s body is not only harmful to your health, but to the laptop as well. As mentioned before, the laptop has protruding stands on each edge in order to elevate the laptop and allow for ventilation. If the processor was to heat up and had no way to cool down, the least that could happen is that your computer will begin to lag. If similar prolonged usage occurs, then you could even melt the internal processor units that would cause permanent damage to your laptop.

All in all, laptops aren’t meant for use on one’s lap, regardless of their name. So the next time you find yourself settled on the couch with the laptop perched on your legs, consider the price of that comfort!

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