Occupational therapy students from two Augusta schools encouraged the pupils of Bel Air Elementary to do one thing Wednesday - lighten up.

To promote backpack safety among pupils on National School Backpack Awareness Day, students from the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta Technical College occupational therapy programs conducted weigh-ins with Bel Air Elementary pupils.

Using ordinary bathroom scales, students took a pupil's weight, the weight of his or her backpack and calculated the weight ratio between the backpack and pupil.

"You're carrying about 21 percent of your body weight in your backpack," Julie DeMott, an occupational therapy assistant student at Augusta Tech, told a Bel Air Elementary fourth-grader. "You should take out a couple of your books and carry them in your arms."

On average, the 64 Bel Air Elementary pupils weighed by Augusta Tech students weighed 88 pounds and carried backpacks that weighed 10 pounds - an average of 12 percent of their body weight, Ms. DeMott said. However, nearly 40 percent of the pupils in the weight test carried backpacks at or above 15 percent of their body weight.

Occupational therapists suggest that 15 percent should be the limit.

Ms. DeMott said overly heavy backpacks on young pupils can lead to neck, shoulder and back pain, poor posture, poor spinal development and compromised breathing as they age.

Jaeda Williams, 10, said she knew her backpack weighed a lot but didn't know of the danger associated with heavy backpacks. Her pack weighed 21 percent of her body weight.

"I'm going to start carrying more books in my arms," the fifth-grader said. "I don't want my back to hurt."

In 2001, more than 7,000 emergency room visits were backpack related, and about half of those injuries occurred in children ages 5 to 14, according to the American Occupational Therapy Association.

To illustrate the improper wearing of backpacks, MCG occupational therapy students performed a skit in which someone was wearing a backpack too low, another student was using only one shoulder strap and yet another was nearly doubled over trying to hold up the weight of all her books.

"We didn't want to just bore them with a lecture," MCG student Stephanie Whitaker said. "We wanted to teach about the proper use of backpacks in a way that would be memorable."

Other MCG students held similar programs at schools in Richmond and Edgefield counties. Many pupils received handouts about backpack dangers to take home to their parents.

MCG occupational therapy professor Mariana D'Amico said many parents are unaware of the jeopardy they're putting their children in.

"Parents usually just want to make sure their kids have all their books without thinking about how they're getting them to school," Dr. D'Amico said. "Once they're educated on the issue, they'll usually take steps to protect their kids."