A lot of students harm their bodies every day. They stand outside buildings to smoke. They trip walking up the stairs. They eat unhealthy fast food for every meal.

Yet, one harmful task goes unnoticed by most people: carrying over-stuffed book bags.

Students use different sorts of bags to carry a lot of books, notebooks, and other tools to school with them every day.

Some students, however, have not given full consideration to their health when carrying heavy items to class.

Doctors and chiropractors have warned against the affects of carrying too much weight on students’ backs. They have also warned against the other dangers lurking around bulky bags that sit in hallways and in the aisles of desks.

Yet, despite the warnings, students continue to carry these bulging backpacks to school.

Students’ Loads

Depending on their class schedules, students may choose to lighten their load between classes while others must still carry a full day’s books with them.

Aaron Taylor, a junior psychology major, said he is aware of the warnings doctors and chiropractors have made common knowledge, but he still carries his book bag. He carries three or four books, notebooks and binders in his bag at a time, along with pens, pencils and other tools he needs for class.

Taylor uses a regular book bag with two straps, but sometimes when the weather is nice he just carries a binder to class because the instructors don’t always use the books.

Taylor said the weight he carries causes him more pain every day.

“I have pain just walking from Ford to Buzzard from my backpack,” Taylor said. “After 15 years of carrying a backpack everywhere with books fully loaded, it’s catching up to me.”

Taylor said he thought a chiropractor visit would be a smart choice, but with being in college, money is hard to come by.

Taylor said he would probably not use a roll-behind book bag to take the load of his back.

“Rolling backpacks are more healthy, but to be honest, they’re not stylish,” Taylor said. “I think in today’s culture a person would be socially shunned to an extent for using a rolling backpack. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

Taylor is not the only student who deems roll-behind book bags unfashionable.

Allison Glancy, a junior early childhood education major, uses a regular book bag as opposed to a shoulder bag or a roll-behind book bag. She said she occasionally used a shoulder bag on the days when she doesn’t have as much to carry.

But, like Taylor, Glancy said she wouldn’t use a roll-behind book bag because she doesn’t think they are in style.

Glancy, a clarinet player in the Panther Marching Band, said some days she can carry light loads, but on days where her classes are back to back and she has marching band, she carries her clarinet and her books on her back.

“On my busy day, I have five classes,” Glancy said. “My first class is in the morning, so that’s by itself with the binder, notebook and folder.”

Glancy said on the rest of her busy days she carries the books, notebooks, folders and other materials required for the other classes at the same time. That includes three books, four notebooks, four folders and her clarinet.

Glancy said she does not experience any pain from the weight she carries in her backpack. However, when she carries her clarinet in a shoulder bag in addition to the tools she carries in her book bag, she said she gets an occasional pain in her back.

A chiropractor is not in Glancy’s near future because she said her pain has not been severe enough to make her feel an appointment was needed, and she isn’t the only person.

Danielle McKenzie, a junior music education major, said she suffers from back and neck pain almost every day because of the amount of tools she carries in a given day.

With that neck and back pain, McKenzie said that rather than going to a chiropractor to treat her pain, she tries to be careful with the load she bears.

McKenzie, an oboe player, said she usually carries her laptop, books, binders, small snacks and a water bottle. McKenzie said she used to use a shoulder/tote bag, but the weight caused too much pain on her shoulder, so she began using a regular book bag.

McKenzie said she wouldn’t use a roll-behind bag because it gets in other people’s way.

“It’s actually more inconvenient and just because it’s bigger, it takes up more space,” McKenzie said. “I would love to take the load off my back, but it’s too much trouble.”

What the doctors say

Dr. Sheila Baker, the medical director of the Health Service, said while some students enter health services with heavy backpacks, not many are there for backpack related injuries.

Baker, a former pediatric doctor, said injuries with backpacks were more common among younger children than college students and adults.

Baker said the heavier a backpack is, the more likely a student is to lose balance and fall. As a result, she has treated sprained ankles that may be related to over-stuffed backpacks.

While the weight of their own bags may not have been the issue, some children were being injured by other students’ backpacks (i.e. tripping over a bag, being hit with a bag, etc.)

Baker recommends that students’ backpacks weigh less than 10 percent of their body weight so they will have fewer complications with balance, pain and accidents.

Baker is not the only doctor who recommends this backpack weight.

Dr. Michael Gandolfi, a chiropractor at Gandolfi Chiropractic Center in Charleston, said backpacks could have a maximum weight of 15 percent of a student’s body weight, but 10 percent is more ideal.

Gandolfi said he sees a lot of students for back pain caused by book bags, but not all are of college age.

According to Gandolfi, 60 percent of children encounter lower back problems from heavy backpacks by the age of 13.

Gandolfi said carrying a backpack on one shoulder could cause neck or shoulder problems, and the major cause is from the weight of the backpack.

“When my daughter was in fourth grade, her backpack weighed about 35 pounds, and she only weighed 90-some pounds,” Gandolfi said. “I watched her walking across the street to and from school, and she was bent straight forward.”

Gandolfi said his solution to his daughter’s problem was to buy a second set of books so she didn’t have to carry her books back and forth. He encourages students to find alternate ways to carry books, and he said the roll-behind book bags could help.

Chiropractic companies make book bags that are designed to relieve pressure from the back, and some designs have belts that fasten in the front to keep the load as close to the students’ bodies as possible, according to Gandolfi.

Gandolfi said, however, children are less likely to carry these styles of book bags because they are not in style. He said backpacks with padding in the shoulders would help cushion nerves and blood vessels and therefore alleviate pain in the neck and shoulders.

Follow fashion or relieve pain?

Each student has made his or her own decision in getting their learning tools from point A to point B.

The trend seems as though one-shoulder bags with flashy designs are the in-fashion choice for most students.

Doctors and chiropractors still warn students about the stress and health risks caused by carrying too much weight on their backs. Some students, however, would rather tough through the pain so they continue to look stylish.

That choice is up to the individual.

Kaci Berry can be reached at 581-2812 or < href="mailto:klschreve@eiu.edu">klschreve@eiu.edu.