Unintended consequences

Most of the young children I see at Marble Mountain are wearing helmets, usually at the insistence of their parents. But a new study suggests helmets can actually increase young skiers' risk of neck injuries:

Ski helmets may increase the risk of neck injury, especially for children, according to the analysis of accident reports on ski hills in Quebec.

The study, by Brent Hagel and four colleagues from Edmonton and Montreal, was published on Friday in the British Medical Journal.

Hagel is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta's Centre for Injury Control and Research.

"Although we found no statistically significant estimates for neck injury and no evidence of effect modification by age, our sensitivity analysis suggests an increased risk of neck injuries with helmet use," said the researchers.

Helmets can exert large bending or twisting forces on the neck when a skier falls, the study found. This is a particular concern for children because their heads are larger than those of adults in relation to the rest of their bodies.

The study also suggests that helmets significantly reduce the risk of head injuries while skiing, and the story doesn't say whether one outweighs the other. But once again, we learn that "safety" measures shouldn't be accepted without question. Taking action against one problem almost always aggravates another problem - the best example being mandatory helmet laws for bicycle riders, which have been shown to turn a lot of people away from riding their bikes altogether.

I'm certainly not suggesting that safety rules should never be followed - only an idiot would ride in a car without wearing a seat belt, for example - but that they must be viewed with a critical eye.

Posted by damian at February 5, 2005 10:11 AM