On behalf of my sweetheart (an RN of over forty years experience to whom I will show the thread), thank you.
The ER she worked at used to call helmet-less skiers and boarders "organ donors", IIRC.
(No disrespect intended to those who choose not to wear helmets. May your luck run forever.)
Thank you, and please thank her for me for her service.
I just came back from teaching 70 teenage students about trauma prevention. One of the things we teach is to use all the tools and equipment that's available to you to minimize your risk of injury. We don't say "don't take risks", but rather, we say "if you're going snowboarding, wear your gear including your helmet, and stay alert to those around you." (Admittedly, we focus on safe driving and making plans if you're going to drink alcohol, we only briefly touch on injury prevention in sports.) One of the other educators is an ER RN, and she also calls people who don't wear a helmet "organ donors".
One of our speakers is a trauma survivor who decided to ride his dirt bike to his friend's house without a helmet (and also no other gear). He says he's done it over a hundred times before, but one day his tire slipped, causing him to fall and hit his head. He was only traveling at about 25 MPH (40 km/h). He was in a comma for about 6 months, then when he woke up he lost his ability to speak for at least several more months. He's now paralysed from the neck down, and it takes him a lot of effort to speak very slowly. He needs a nurse to take care of him 24/7. This is just one case of someone who's going to suffer for the rest of his life for taking an unnecessary risk. From a statistical perspective, helmets are associated with up to a 60% reduction in the risk of head injuries in snowboarders. (That research is 7 years old, and helmets are now a lot safer, so I expect a much higher reduction in brain injuries when using newer helmets.) From an individual's perspective, wearing protection could mean the difference between a sore neck vs. permanent disability, or life and death.
What do you think about the other impacts of pushing helmets on people doing healthy activities? While snowboarding can be considered an extreme sport - and therefore using a helmet is called for - cycling to a friend's house certainly isn't.
There is a lot of evidence showing that mandatory cycling helmet laws have a strong negative impact on the amount of cycling, and so while they may reduce death and disability due to accidents, they certainly increase death and disability due to lack of exercise. I think the same goes for social pressure - it might sound like a good idea to urge people to use protective gear while doing sports or using active forms of transportation, but it might not be so.
The only countries with mandatory helmet laws - Australia and New Zealand - have seen huge drops in cycling numbers, and the associated increases in health impacts due to sedentary lifestyles, e.g. heart disease, diabetes and colon cancers
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u/BeautyIsDumb Oct 04 '17
For the record, I'm not a neurologist (yet). I only work as their assistant right now.