The Ski Helmet Debate

PrivateBryan wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Opening with the most obvious statement ever:

"The BBC reports that researchers from the Department of Sports Science at the University of Innsbruck found that adults and Children, of all ages, wearing a helmet while skiing were significantly less likely than those without a helmet to have a head injury."

You don't say!!!! :roll:

Yet another piece aimed at bullying bobblers.
It offends me.

Man Up, for gods sake.
If I was going to be offended by a picture of a german in a helmet or a BBC report I know which it would be!

Are you for real?
This is supposed to be a bit of tongie in cheek fun.
I bet you wear a helmet :roll:

Tony_H wrote:

PrivateBryan wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Opening with the most obvious statement ever:

"The BBC reports that researchers from the Department of Sports Science at the University of Innsbruck found that adults and Children, of all ages, wearing a helmet while skiing were significantly less likely than those without a helmet to have a head injury."

You don't say!!!! :roll:

Yet another piece aimed at bullying bobblers.
It offends me.

Man Up, for gods sake.
If I was going to be offended by a picture of a german in a helmet or a BBC report I know which it would be!

Are you for real?
This is supposed to be a bit of tongie in cheek fun.
I bet you wear a helmet :roll:

Definitely don't wear a ski helmet.
Only wear one when I'm in combat.

The BMJ article was publication of meta analysis done by 1. Gerhard Ruedl, postdoctoral researcher,
2. Martin Kopp, professor,
3. Martin Burtscher, professor
of Innsbruk university.
They concluded that head injuries accounted for 9-19% of reported snowsports related injuries and that skiers and snowboarders with a helmet were significantly less likely than those without a helmet to have a head injury.

The reduction in risk was greater in children than adults (odds ratios 0.41 and 0.65 repectively)

They went on to discuss whether or not other factors may influence these figures. Helmet wearing seemed to be more common in experienced and by inference more skilled skiers. This might skew the figures for adults, although the more skilled the faster the skier.

My interpretation: At present the evidence isn't compelling enough to make helmets mandatory for adults. Time will tell - the longer helmet are around the better the figures will be at telling the real benefits.

From what I can gather the article is also available on the BMJs Facebook page. (will post a link if it is - the firewall at work blocks facebook)

andymol2 wrote:The BMJ article was publication of meta analysis done by ....

Thanks Andy :D

Ally

How refreshing to have a balanced scientific opinion, as opposed to the bumf that politicians spew out to justify decisions. :thumbup:

I have decided to try a helmet this year - my reasons are:

1) Having no hair I have to wear a hat anyway to stop me getting cold! So logically one could argue a helmet is a hat with a crust!

2) My hats seem to ride up & I end up having to pull them back down when I get up to speed.

3) As I have got faster I guess the chances of hitting my head hard have increased.

4) To avoid being too much of a hypocrit insisting my youngest daughter wears hers. (It has been compulsory in some of the resorts we've ski'd for under 16s)

I still don't think it should be mandatory for adults. I think it should be for kids.

Andymol you should know that if you intend trying to fix angel wings or pig ears to you helmet that it doesn't work. They come off (unless you get a really smooth one). And you can't use superglue because it changes the composition of the plastic and can make it brittle, which could make it crack on impact.

I thought you may need to know. :D

andymol2 wrote:3) As I have got faster I guess the chances of hitting my head hard have increased.

Andy, this is the reason I started wearing a helmet last year.

I mean, I'm quite happy driving a car at, say, 10mph without wearing my seatbelt, but definitely not at, say, 60mph.

Ally