Underground Journal

Silicone Keyboards can Help Your Health

Pediatricians seldom make home visits, like they used to some forty-five years ago. If they did, then a pediatrician in the home of an asthmatic might look with disdain at a conventional computer keyboard. That physician might urge the patient’s parents to purchase a silicone keyboard.

The silcone coated keys on that particular computer part can be cleaned with soap and running tap water. Exposure to soap and water will not damage those keys. Naturally such a cleaning would remove any dust from those keys.

Would those keys remain free of dust? They would if they had the proper sort of IP rating. The keyboards with silcone coated keys have varying abilities to resist the attraction of dust particles. The level of that resistance is indecated in the IP rating for each silicone coated keyboard.

If a keyboard has an IP rating of 1,2,3 or 4, then that keyboard can not resist the natural tendency for dust particles to land and settle on a flat surface. If that keyboard has an IP rating of 5, then it demonstrates some resistance to dust. If that keyboard has an IP rating of 6, then it should remain free of dust.

Since dust is the most frequent cause of astmatic symptoms, the parents of an asthmatic child would have good reason to purchase a silicone keyboard with an IP rating of at least 5. Any decision to buy a keyboard with a rating of 6 would underscore the wisdom of one asmatic’s parents.

Now those parents might wonder just how long they could feel confident about the ability of the new keyboard to resist the natural attraction of dust particles. The computer companies that produce and sell silicone keyboards normally offer a one year warranty.

Considering the rapidity with which technological advances can “outdate” any computer, parents should feel comfortable with that one year warranty. The cost of buying a new keyboard every year would be quite small, compared to the cost of repeated visits to the doctor’s office.

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