August 1, 2009

Be Cool

Read this recent post from the Consumer Report Health blog that talks about a recent survey that finds more than half of Americans don’t wear a bike helmet.

5 comments:

Jena said...

I don't think the helmet stats in Canada are much different from the stats in the States. That said, last Thursday as I was running errands, I passed a ton of people on bikes and skateboards and various other wheeled things--and every one of them was wearing a helmet! The kids, the adults, everyone. It made me so happy!

Anonymous said...

Why do you not advocate for all motorists to wear helmets? The risk of serious and fatal head injury is MUCH higher riding in a car than on a bike and many thousands more people are injured and killed this way each year.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I should say I'm pretty sure you're not going to listen to what I say. You've got it into your head that bicycle helmets are 'good' and simply won't listen to anyone who says otherwise.

I'm sorry, but I've spent the last 2 years looking into the vast and contradictory array of research and evidence on the effectiveness of 1) bicycle helmets and 2) mandatory bicycle helmet laws.

Although the older (1970s, 80s and early 90s) evidence tended to be ambivalent (on both), almost all the more recent research tends to be AGAINST both (and critical of the fatally flawed research in previous papers).

Bicycle helmets are designed to protect against only the most low-speed inconsequential falls and certainly have never been shown to save a single life (that's a very dangerous mistruth to spread). Any small benefits suggested by simplistic lab-based helmet testing are negated by the psychological effects of helmets: risk compensation mainly, increasing the risk of cyclists who wear helmets (from motorists and from themselves).

Helmets simply aren't cracked up for much.

Open your mind for a moment and have a genuine look at www.cyclehelmets.org as a not too biased place to start.

Adam

Sexy girls said...

helmet is good for all, but I think that all motorists must wear helmets

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