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My 11-year-old grandsons, Stefan and Tomas, weigh about 80 pounds each. On the 20- minute walk to their middle school and the uphill walk home, they carry backpacks that weigh about 12 pounds each, or 15 percent of their body weight.
When extra books or clothing, a musical instrument or other equipment are added, the weight they carry can reach 20 pounds. But whatever the figure, those packs are simply too heavy for their still-forming bones and muscles.
Heavy backpacks don’t just sap children of energy that might be better used doing schoolwork or playing sports. Lugging them can also lead to chronic back pain, accidents and possibly lifelong orthopedic damage.
Among the risks described by Dr. Pierre D’Hemecourt, a sports medicine specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, are stress fractures in the back, inflammation of growth cartilage, back and neck strain, and nerve damage in the neck and shoulders.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission calculated that carrying a 12-pound backpack to and from school and lifting it 10 times a day for an entire school year puts a cumulative load on youngsters’ bodies of 21,600 pounds — the equivalent of six midsized cars.
Disponível em: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/heavy-backpacks-can-spell-chronic-back-pain-forchildren/(Adaptado)
What can the weight of backpacks affect?
