The British Journal of Dermatology has a report that could be quite disturbing for Playstation PS3 players who keep a tight grip on their gaming. However Sony insiders are claiming that the report is a beat-up because only one person was involved in the research.
The Swiss experts claim that if gamers keep too tight a grip on the PS3 controller while furiously pushing the buttons it can cause a newly identified skin disorder marked by painful lumps on the palms, according to a Reuters report.
Called “PlayStation palmar hidradentitis” the skin disorder according to the experts can cause painful lesions on the palms similar to patches found on the soles of children’s feet after taking part in heavy physical activity, they said.
“The tight and continuous grasping of the hand-grips together with repeated pushing of the buttons produce minor but continuous trauma to the (palm) surfaces,” Vincent Piguet and colleagues at University Hospitals and Medical School of Geneva reported in the British Journal of Dermatology.
A spokesman for Sony Corp, which makes the PlayStation, noted the study involved one person and said the company had sold hundreds of millions of the consoles since the product was introduced in 1995.
“As with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals,” Sony spokesman David Wilson said.
“We would not wish to belittle this research and we will study the findings with interest, but this is the first time we have ever heard of a complaint of this nature.”
For more see www.Reuters.com
