Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993 TAG: 9305180093
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JANE BRODY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Like my sons, I complained that the helmet was uncomfortable and messed up my hair. Besides, I had been riding helmetless for 35 years and had never hit my head in a spill.
Then one day, riding in the neighborhood, I became the filling of a car sandwich when a driver pulled over to let a fire engine pass and forced me into a parked car. I flew over the handlebars in front of the moving car and was lucky to escape with some bruises and shaken self-confidence.
That afternoon I bought a new helmet, lightweight and comfortable. I wear it all the time. I even got a permanent wave to make my hairdo easier to restore. I feel smarter and safer.
Each year more than half a million cyclists suffer injuries that send them to hospital emergency rooms. Nearly two-thirds are children from 5 to 14. A third of those injuries involve the head and face -- twice the fraction of head injuries that result from football, baseball or hockey.
And of the more than 1,300 cyclists who die of their injuries, 80 percent succumb to head injuries. Six hundred of those who die are children.
A 1987 study of 520 children injured in bicycle accidents revealed that only three had been wearing helmets. Thirty-one percent suffered head and neck injuries and 3 percent had concussions, the researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reported.
But while evidence clearly indicates that helmets can prevent head injuries, only a minority of adult bicyclists and even fewer children wear them.
Studies suggest that only 3 to 5 percent of youngsters wear them. Helmets are even more often ignored by roller-blading enthusiasts. Yet both bicycles and blades can carry their passengers at high speeds on obstacle courses like streets, where a fall on the head can cause permanent brain damage or death.
Researchers in Seattle and Boston studied why children balk at wearing helmets. Common excuses were "because my friends don't wear helmets" and "other kids would laugh at me." The same peer pressures that dictate clothing and hair styles predominate when it comes to safety.
Interestingly, while the children in the Boston study expressed no negative views toward others who wore helmets and often called them "smart," "safe" or "good," they said that if they wore helmets they would feel "stupid," "embarrassed," "not cool" and "not tough."
Yet when the Boston children were asked how they would respond if the law required helmets, a vast majority said they would comply because, as one child put it, "Nobody could laugh at you because they'd be wearing one too."
Laws can apparently make a major difference in the adoption of safety measures. While most parents are diligent about insisting that their children use car seats and seat belts, as required by law, a majority are casual about protecting their children when they are far more vulnerable: on a bicycle, without 2,000 or more pounds of steel between them and a life-threatening force.
Among those whose children at least owned helmets (and only half of the owners actually wore them), many came from households where a bicycle injury had occurred to a family member in the last year or where the family knew someone who had been seriously hurt on a bicycle.
Basically everyone who rides a bicycle should be helmeted, even when just riding on the block or on a traffic-free bicycle path. That includes toddlers in bicycle buggies and child seats attached to adult bicycles.
In fact, the law in New York and several other states requires that children 1 to 5 years old wear helmets when they are carried on bicycles. The law also prohibits transporting infants younger than 1 year on a bicycle. But it says nothing about helmets on children riding alone.
Experts suggest that a helmet accompany the first tricycle so that children grow up knowing that it is part of the biker's uniform. If an older child balks at wearing a helmet, it is the parent's responsibility to insist on it or else "no bike."
To reduce resistance and increase peer acceptance, join forces with the parents of your child's friends and get all the children's helmets at the same time and see to it that they are worn.
Helmets are now standard equipment for competitive cyclists and for participants on most organized bicycle tours.
Helmets come in a variety of types, colors and sizes. They are built for comfort: light in weight and vented for circulation. The most protective ones have a hard outer shell with a molded foam lining. Detachable cushions and adjustable straps allow almost any head a snug and secure fit.
Be sure to check for the approval sticker from the Snell Memorial Foundation, which applies the most stringent criteria, or at least the Z90.4 rating of the American National Standards Institute.
Jane Brody writes about health issues for The New York Times.
by CNB