CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – How much burden will your child again carry daily to classes when school year opens this June?
The Department of Health (DOH) here has expressed concern over the policy of some schools, mostly private, to require pupils to bring daily to their classes bags loaded with books, notebooks and other requirements weighing almost half their body mass.
“This is a concern that must be addressed for the sake of the health of the children,” DOH regional director Dr. Rio Magpantay told Punto!.
This, amid scientific studies warning of adverse physical effects of heavy school bags on pupils and experts’ recommendations limiting a child’s load to school to no more than 15 percent of his body weight.
Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin said he will sponsor a bill limiting the weight of bags that children can bring to school. He cited the case of the Mary, Help of Christians school in Mabalacat in this province where parents found out that bags carried daily by their grade school children to classes averaged 40 percent of their body weight.
“I think such a problem is all over the country, that’s why school bags as big as a foreign tourist’s luggage are again selling well for the school opening anywhere you go,” he said.
Lazatin noted a 1988 study done by the Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development which showed that 4.54 percent of third through sixth graders had mild to serious spinal deformities due to the heavy load they bring to school daily.
He also cited a 1994 Scandinavian study showing “a high probability for spinal problems in children who carry backpacks, no matter how they wear them. “
“The study found that 53.7 percent of children who carried their packs on one shoulder complained of back pain. Forty five percent of two shoulder pack wearers complained of back pain. Interestingly, the highest level of back pain, 68.6 percent carried the bag in one hand. The study also concluded that females were more likely to experience backpack related pain than were boys,” he quoted the study as saying.
Lazatin recalled that “in my student days, we did not carry heavy bag to school, but I don’t think we ended up less capable members of our communities.”
“Pupils are supposed to listen to their teachers in school, and read their textbooks at home. In the end, having pupils carry heavy load to school will be counterproductive, with many of them physically deformed as adults. Heavy load in school could be one reason why so many now suffer from spinal injuries, including slipped discs, ” he said
Lazatin cited another study of 100 physicians in Chicago and Wilmington in 1998 showing that almost 60 percent of children’s orthopaedic office visits for back and shoulder pain were the result of carrying too heavy backpacks. These findings were presented at an October 1999 press conference held by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, he added.
Similar findings were presented in a study titled “The Weight of School Bags and its Relation to Spinal Deformity” done by the Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Hong Kong, the Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital in 1988, Lazatin also noted.
Lazatin also said that his research has shown that in 2001, another study revealed that the average weight of a Hong Kong primary school student’s backpack was only 15 percent of the student’s body weight. “When the bag weighed 20 percent of the student’s body weight, the researchers found lung volume was significantly compromised; when the bag weighed 10 percent of the student’s body weight, however, lung function was not compromised,” he noted the study as reporting.
“While many pupils have resorted to bags with wheels, it is unavoidable for them to carry the bags when confronted by a higher or lower step or, worse, when climbing to another floor as most schools in the country do not have either elevators or escalators,” he lamented.
“When pupils do this daily for years and years in school, the adverse effects on their health must be considerable,” he said.
Ma. Felicidad Mendoza, acting superintendent of the Department of Education in Pampanga, said she was not aware of any policy of the government on the weight of school bags school children have to bring to school.
The Department of Health (DOH) here has expressed concern over the policy of some schools, mostly private, to require pupils to bring daily to their classes bags loaded with books, notebooks and other requirements weighing almost half their body mass.
“This is a concern that must be addressed for the sake of the health of the children,” DOH regional director Dr. Rio Magpantay told Punto!.
This, amid scientific studies warning of adverse physical effects of heavy school bags on pupils and experts’ recommendations limiting a child’s load to school to no more than 15 percent of his body weight.
Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin said he will sponsor a bill limiting the weight of bags that children can bring to school. He cited the case of the Mary, Help of Christians school in Mabalacat in this province where parents found out that bags carried daily by their grade school children to classes averaged 40 percent of their body weight.
“I think such a problem is all over the country, that’s why school bags as big as a foreign tourist’s luggage are again selling well for the school opening anywhere you go,” he said.
Lazatin noted a 1988 study done by the Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development which showed that 4.54 percent of third through sixth graders had mild to serious spinal deformities due to the heavy load they bring to school daily.
He also cited a 1994 Scandinavian study showing “a high probability for spinal problems in children who carry backpacks, no matter how they wear them. “
“The study found that 53.7 percent of children who carried their packs on one shoulder complained of back pain. Forty five percent of two shoulder pack wearers complained of back pain. Interestingly, the highest level of back pain, 68.6 percent carried the bag in one hand. The study also concluded that females were more likely to experience backpack related pain than were boys,” he quoted the study as saying.
Lazatin recalled that “in my student days, we did not carry heavy bag to school, but I don’t think we ended up less capable members of our communities.”
“Pupils are supposed to listen to their teachers in school, and read their textbooks at home. In the end, having pupils carry heavy load to school will be counterproductive, with many of them physically deformed as adults. Heavy load in school could be one reason why so many now suffer from spinal injuries, including slipped discs, ” he said
Lazatin cited another study of 100 physicians in Chicago and Wilmington in 1998 showing that almost 60 percent of children’s orthopaedic office visits for back and shoulder pain were the result of carrying too heavy backpacks. These findings were presented at an October 1999 press conference held by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, he added.
Similar findings were presented in a study titled “The Weight of School Bags and its Relation to Spinal Deformity” done by the Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Hong Kong, the Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital in 1988, Lazatin also noted.
Lazatin also said that his research has shown that in 2001, another study revealed that the average weight of a Hong Kong primary school student’s backpack was only 15 percent of the student’s body weight. “When the bag weighed 20 percent of the student’s body weight, the researchers found lung volume was significantly compromised; when the bag weighed 10 percent of the student’s body weight, however, lung function was not compromised,” he noted the study as reporting.
“While many pupils have resorted to bags with wheels, it is unavoidable for them to carry the bags when confronted by a higher or lower step or, worse, when climbing to another floor as most schools in the country do not have either elevators or escalators,” he lamented.
“When pupils do this daily for years and years in school, the adverse effects on their health must be considerable,” he said.
Ma. Felicidad Mendoza, acting superintendent of the Department of Education in Pampanga, said she was not aware of any policy of the government on the weight of school bags school children have to bring to school.
