LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Laptops have always been a hot item but a 50-year-old scientist didn't realize to what extent until he burned his penis.The previously healthy father of two remembered feeling a burning sensation after he had been writing a report at home for about an hour with the computer on his lap.
He noticed a redness and irritation the following day but it wasn't until he was examined by a doctor that he realized how much damage had been done.
"The ventral part of his scrotal skin had turned red, and there was a blister with a diameter of about two centimeters (0.8 inches)," Claes-Gorn Ostenson, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, wrote in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal Friday.
Two days later, the blisters broke and the wounds became infected and then crusted but after about a week the unidentified scientist was "healing quite rapidly."
Ostenson noted that the computer manual did warn against operating it directly on exposed skin but said the patient had lap burns even though he had been wearing trousers and underpants.
Is there some kind of safety commission? Some kind of authority that should be notified about this problem?
It seems to me that it is entirely possible that the extent of this problem is not yet known. In fact, I think we owe it to our fellows to pass the word.
As this scientist adeptly noticed, hot things burn. And further, hot things on your penis burn your penis and could leave behind angry pustules and pus filled blisters that burst and crust.
If you use a laptop, please, for mercy sake, protect your penis or other sensitive bits with more than just your clothing. A towel perhaps. Or a piece of asbestos fire curtain. Something.
Posted at 12:47 a.m.
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