At the height of RSI-fever, it was hard to avoid. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health received three times as many requests for health and hazard evaluations related to wrist pain in 1992 than it did in 1982. During 1998, an estimated three of every 10,000 workers lost time from work because of carpal tunnel syndrome, according to the National Institutes of Health.

People who have had a cumulative trauma disorder say it can be debilitating. Clay Scott, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, developed severe wrist pain during college. By the end of his senior year, he said he was incapable of doing daily tasks like cutting food and opening doors.

His recovery started with physical therapy a few times a week and a home exercise program to stretch and strengthen his back and neck muscles. It took three or four years for him to recover, he said.

"I was hurting myself for about two years before figuring it out and realizing I needed to change my work habits," he said.

Some businesses have been focusing on prevention, part of a growing effort by employers to keep their workers healthy.

Outdoor clothing company L.L. Bean, Inc. shuts down its manufacturing line three times a day for mandatory five-minute stretches. Retailer Replacements Ltd. also runs on-the-clock group stretches, as well as a fitness-walking program.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas started a program in 1991, when costs of the injuries to its employees passed $500,000. It bought ergonomic chairs and desks, introduced ergonomic assessments for new employees during their first two weeks of work and hired two full-time registered nurses to work with employees.

Since the program started, the company's workers compensation costs have fallen by 62 percent, said Terri Janda, a nurse who leads the Blue Cross program.

As companies worked on interventions, ergonomics became cool. Auto companies advertised their cars' ergonomic features. Salons installed ergonomic hair washing stations. Everyone with a desk got a keyboard tray.

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration introduced ergonomic standards in 2000, which were assailed by businesses claiming the standards would cost them somewhere between $20 billion and $100 billion to implement. The standard was overturned by Congress in 2001.

The loud politics around the standards got businesses interested in starting their own ergonomic programs. California is now the only state with a state ergonomic standard, according to OSHA.

But Dr. Hegmann sounds a note of caution. While it's possible that improvements in factories and offices may be behind the decrease in cases, another possibility is that existing cases aren't always reported, he said.

As carpal tunnel is strongly linked with aging, obesity and diabetes, "it means we should have more cases than we have." Some of the reduction in cases, he said, "may be due to the realization that it's a common situation; there's no rush to do anything about it."