Most of the concerns around the use of backpacks concentrate on their excessive weight. Parents and teachers alike complain about the undue size of packs. The size of backpacks may even present problems during class—when teachers are trying to walk throughout a classroom riddled with overflowing bags. In 1998 alone, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children made over ten thousand visits to a clinician because of backpack-related symptoms. Symptoms of possible physical problems caused by improper use of backpacks include pain or aching in one’s neck and shoulders, headache, upper and lower back pain, numbness and/or tingling in hands, arms, and wrists and scoliosis. If such symptoms exist, one should consult a medical professional and evaluate if the teenager is using his or her backpack safely.
A backpack should be chosen carefully. The following guidelines will ensure proper backpack safety:
- Judge the size of the backpack against the teenager; make sure that there are padded straps and a padded backside. This padding alleviates stress and strain on the teenager’s shoulders and back.
- Backpacks should have reflective tape on the outside—to assure the teenager will be seen when walking in the dark. Also, if the adolescent rides a bike, he or she should buy flashing lights to attach to the backpack. The lights should always be used when riding in the dark.
- A backpack should be packed with the heaviest items toward the backside of the backpack. Avoid packing them toward the outside, since this may result in uneven weight carried.
- A filled backpack should not weigh more than fifteen percent of a teenager’s weight. So, if a child weighs one hundred and twenty pounds, her pack should not exceed eighteen pounds. Be wary when a backpack causes a teen to hunch forward when walking. This posture is indicative of both a heavy pack and a potentially harmful practice.
- When lifting a backpack from the ground, one should do so slowly and deliberately. If the motion is performed too quickly, the back is at risk at being injured.
- The adolescent should consider carrying some books in his or her arms, as opposed to everything in the backpack. The burden is then distributed across the teenager’s body. Be wary when a child overfills his or her backpack and carries books in his or her arms.
- A teenager should wear both straps of a backpack. This fashion may conflict with social norms at school—which may dictate carrying a backpack on one shoulder. Wearing both straps ensures that the backpack’s weight is distributed equally across the teenager’s body. Otherwise, a teen may end up with one shoulder higher than the other.
- If there is a waist strap, one should use it—it facilitates proper distribution of the weight of the contents. With a waist strap, weight is distributed more evenly to the back as well as the hips.
- One should seriously examine how many books and binders must be transported within the school and between school and home. Minimizing this extra load will ease the burden on a teenager’s back. Some school districts distribute two sets of books to students in order to minimize excess weight during transportation. One is used for study at school while the other one is used at home.
- Other options exist for transporting materials from home. These options include using a backpack that resembles a rolling carry-on. In this way, the teenager may avoid straining the upper body by simply rolling her backpack. This bag may be used as both a backpack and a rolling bag. Since there are often more mechanisms in this style of bag, if the pack is often used as a backpack, it may turn out to be heavier than the traditional style.
Lastly, concerns about the usage of backpacks have become more pronounced in recent years as a result of the 1999 Columbine High School murders. Seeing that students may use backpacks to transport drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, guns, knives, and other paraphernalia, some high schools have banned the use of backpacks altogether within the school property. Other schools have imposed a rule that only clear, transparent backpacks—ones in which the contents can be seen—are allowed on school grounds. Still, in other schools students must pass through metal detectors and put their backpacks through x-ray machines before attending class.
Samantha A. Goldstein M.D.
Department of Pediatrics
University of California, San Franscisco
Related topics:
Academics, back pain, headaches, musculoskeletal disorders
