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Using your head before it breaks
Do bicycle helmets
really do any good? The answer could really turn out to be a no-brainer.
By Gary Bryant
I'm riding a bike into my fiftieth year. I'm looking forward to riding in the venerated
Seattle to Portland (STP) adventure this summer along with 8,000 other neo-fanatical two-wheeling pedal-pushing humanipods. I'll also be wearing a helmet. I'm quite confident most of us will. "After all
it's the law," I say to myself. Well actually, it might not be.
In fact, less than half of these United States have bicycle helmet laws at all - not if you're fifty, not if you're five--equal
opportunity road pizza. For some of us, not requiring children to wear helmets is unconscionable. To others, a law that takes away a person's right to kill himself is worse, even if that person is a five
year old child.
According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, only two percent of traffic deaths involve cyclists. The National Bicycle Safety Network says of the more than 500,000 emergency
department visits by cyclists, more than 153,000 emergency department visits each for head injuries alone.
Currently over 20 states have implemented bicycle helmet laws. Fortunately, the Children's
Bicycle Helmet Safety Act of 1994 made funds available for all states, cities and non-profit organizations to implement helmet education and safety programs. In my own state of Washington, 18 cities and towns
and all of King County (except Seattle) have introduced helmet laws.
So why would you want to wear a helmet if you don't have to? If increasing your chances of staying alive isn't enough, consider
these findings: While wearing a helmet doesn't guarantee old age and grandchildren, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that nearly 800 people die from cycling accidents each year and nearly two
thirds of those are children.
According to a study by Dr. Deborah L. Benzil, of New York Medical College in Valhalla, the chance of dying from a head injury increases significantly after age thirty. In a
separate study prepared by Duke University and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), preliminary results indicate a strong possibility of a connection between head injury and the development of Alzheimer's
disease in later life.
"Even mild head injuries can have a lasting effect on brain function. Many people don't realize that even a concussion can have lasting effect on the quality of life."
Says Sandra Koopman, a critical care flight nurse with Airlift Northwest in Seattle. " The real tragedy is seeing a child or young athlete undergoing brain surgery on a sunny Saturday afternoon knowing that
someone so young and fit would otherwise never see the inside of a hospital."
The last thing you want to do is put a gun to someone's head to get them to wear a helmet. On the other hand, the fact
that 90 percent of all cyclists that lost their lives in 2000 weren't wearing helmets presents a fairly strong argument that suggests you should at least consider it.
The good news is that voluntary use
of bicycling headgear is on the rise. According to the City of Seattle's Transportation department, voluntary use of helmets by Seattle cyclists is greater than their King county counterparts, where helmet use
is mandatory. The Washington State Traffic Safety Commission reports that as of the year 2000, some form a bicycle helmet law applied to 35.6 percent of that state's population. Virtually every major cycling
organization in the country endorses helmet use by their members. Even professional cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, use protective headgear.
A helmet won't guarantee your safety in the event an
oncoming train or even if a frisky little Volkswagen decides to occupy the same space as your bike. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a helmet will reduce your likelihood of
head injury by 88 percent. Now I confess that I'm not that good at math, but to me that number is significant. So for those of us who live in areas with helmet laws in place, all we need
to do is obey the law and the odds that we'll have a long cycling life will increase dramatically. The rest of you might want to read this article again before you exercise your hard won right to decide for
yourself whether or not to use a helmet. It should be a no-brainer.
Gary Bryant is a writer, consumer health advocate and technologist. Bryant is founder of BreakThrough Digest, an online information resource
that offers easier access to critical health and technology information to America's seniors and their care-givers. You may contact him at gary.bryant@scienceforseniors.org You can also visit the website at
http://www.scienceforseniors.org
On the Web
The National Bicycle Safety Network
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/bike/default.htm
The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
http://www.bhsi.org
CDC Bicycle Related Head Injuries
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/bikehel.htm
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