College track star Kevin Dare shook the track and field world four years ago when he attempted to pole-vault 15 feet, 7 inches during a Big Ten Conference track meet in Minnesota.
The jump was sadly unforgettable because Dare missed and was killed when he landed headfirst in the steel takeoff box that vaulters use to catapult themselves into the air.
After years of debate on ways to make the sport safer, a standards panel approved in May the first specifications for a pole vaulting helmet, spurring production of several models.
In the past few years, that same panel, the American Society for Testing and Materials, has approved headgear standards for martial arts, short-track speed skating, horseback riding, bull riding and soccer – a total of 13 helmets since 2000.
This is in addition to headgear on the market for bicycling, motorcycle riding, in-line skating, skiing, baseball and football. Call it the “helmetization” of America. And blame it on an increasingly safety-conscious world in which nearly every sport or recreational activity that poses a head-injury threat is sized up for a helmet.
Head injury experts worry that some new helmets have come on the market without empirical data to show the need for or the effectiveness of the headgear.
“There is limited data for some of these kinds of sports,” said Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who has studied helmet use among youngsters. “Before we push these kinds of helmets we need to have an idea on the effectiveness.” Dr. Tony Strickland, director of the Sports Concussion Institute at the Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Los Angeles, shares the same concerns, adding that poorly designed helmets could interfere with an athlete’s hearing and vision.
“Some might argue that some protection is better than none,” he says. “That’s not always the case.”
America’s helmet movement began 20 years ago when states and local governments started adopting bicycle helmet laws targeting teenage riders. It was fueled by a New England Journal of Medicine study that said 85 percent of bicycle head injuries could be prevented by wearing a helmet.
Although bicycle helmet use has varied by state, surveys show the helmets are effective when worn.
The same might not be said of other helmets. In recent years, the development of new headgear has been pushed less by the number of injuries and more by emotion-
filled campaigns led by advocacy groups, in most cases headed by the parents of injured youngsters. Pole vaulting, for example, has new helmet standards – but did not experience a preceding sharp spike in head injuries.
“It starts with an individual with a story,” said Susan Connor, president of the Brain Injury Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group that represents more than 5 million brain injury victims, families and professionals. “It’s not ideal, but that is the normal course of events.” The American Society for Testing and Materials – one of four panels that approves helmet standards in the country – has been reviewing dozens of requests for new helmet standards in the last few years.
Because athletic associations and government agencies usually don’t require helmets until a standard is set for thickness, shape, material and design, a campaign to mandate helmets for a sport often starts by persuading a testing agency to set a standard. Thus, the four panels are the target of heavy lobbying by helmet manufacturers and the parents of injured athletes.
The agencies’ willingness to consider new gear may also reflect the public’s growing acceptance of helmets. In 2002, Americans bought 2.4 million helmets for all sports. By 2004, that number had jumped to 4.7 million, according to Board-Trac, a sports market research firm.
Randy Swart, vice chairman of ASTM’s headgear subcommittee, said his group typically wouldn’t consider adopting a helmet standard until a group of athletes, schools or parents made a push for such a standard. A jump in reported head injuries alone won’t prompt action from his group, he said.
He pointed out that basketball has one of the highest rates of head injuries of any sport but that his subcommittee has not considered standards for a basketball helmet because no one has lobbied for it.
“If the people in the sport are not interested, then there is no point to make headgear,” he said.
So new helmets are typically created through a movement by the people in a particular sport – some of whom have not just an emotional interest, but a financial one as well.
Perhaps, pediatrics professor Rivara says, new helmets should be developed based on recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
After Dare’s death in 2002, the National Collegiate Athletic Association mandated larger landing pads but did not mandate helmets. The NCAA allows vaulters to wear helmets on a voluntary basis.
Pole vaulting ranks far below most other sports in total head injuries. In 2001, the American Journal of Sports Medicine published a study that found 31 catastrophic head injuries associated with pole vaulting in the high school, college and amateur ranks between 1982 and 1998. Those accidents resulted in 16 deaths, according to the study.
The study did not compare pole vaulting injuries with other sports, but a Consumer Product Safety Commission study found that head injury incidents for pole-vaulters were relatively rare compared with other sports such as basketball (23,908), baseball (20,583) and football (20,128) in 1995 alone.
One of the authors of the 2001 pole vaulting study, 1972 Olympic pole vaulting bronze medalist Jan Johnson, has been highly critical of the helmets. Johnson, who heads the pole vault safety committee for U.S. Track and Field, the governing body for high school track and field, said there has only been one catastrophic head injury since larger landing pads were adopted in 2002. “I think the problem was solved that way,” he said.
Although the study did not investigate the pros and cons of a pole vault helmet, Johnson says he worries that they may cause spinal injuries by hyper-flexing a vaulter’s neck on impact with the padding.
“I am not a real strong advocate for helmets in pole vaulting,” he said.
Protecting your head
Finding the right helmet for a particular sport is just the first step in protecting your head from injury. The helmet must also fit properly. Wearing an ill-fitting helmet is almost as dangerous as wearing none at all, because a loose-fitting helmet can fly off in an accident.
The following tips apply to most sporting and outdoor recreation helmets, according to safety groups, including the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute in Arlington, Va.
Craniums come in various shapes, so prepare to spend some time finding a helmet to fit your head.
The helmet should comfortably touch your head on all sides. It should fit so snugly that it stays in place even when you shake your head violently. Some have pads inside that can be moved to fill any gaps between your head and the helmet.
The helmet should sit level on your head, with the front just above the eyebrows.
If you wear glasses, the helmet should sit just above the frames. When you look upward, the helmet’s front rim should be barely visible to your eye.
Tighten the chin strap so that when you open your mouth wide, you feel the helmet pull down a little. The “Y” on the side of the straps that run down the side of your head should fit just below your ears.
Test the fit of your helmet by pushing up and back on the front rim. If your helmet moves more than an inch, you need to tighten the Y-section of the chin strap that runs in front of your ears. Push forward and up on the back rim. If your helmet moves more than an inch, tighten the Y-section in back of your ears.
On one-size-fits-all helmets, tighten the fitting ring until the helmet stays in place even during a violent shake.
When buying a helmet, look for labels that indicate that it meets the standards set by at least one of these American testing agencies: the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the American Society for Testing and Materials, the American National Standards Institute or the Snell Memorial Foundation.
– Hugo Martin
