New Helmets Paper

--
cheers

Rich
"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Just come across this paper in the July issue of Accident Analysis and
Prevention. Curiously it concluded that more wearing of better helmets is
needed despite finding a 33% mortality rate in non-helmeted cyclists but a
100% mortality rate in the small sample of helmeted cyclists. Sometimes I
think I know how Copernicus must have felt.

http://shorterlink.com/?JWMFLM

Tony

you're probably right, but since it's a subscription site, all we can see is
the highly unelightening abstract.
--
cheers

Rich

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Just come across this paper in the July issue of Accident Analysis and
Prevention. Curiously it concluded that more wearing of better
helmets is needed despite finding a 33% mortality rate in non-helmeted
cyclists but a 100% mortality rate in the small sample of helmeted
cyclists. Sometimes I think I know how Copernicus must have felt.

You were right about small sample - there were only three! Also, it says
this:

"An important shortcoming in the current helmet standards is that linear
head acceleration is the only injury mechanism being considered, while it
has been demonstrated by several investigators in the field that the
occurrence of certain head injuries is correlated with other mechanical
parameters rather than linear acceleration. Consequently, tolerance
criteria which relate the occurrence of all brain injuries exclusively to
translational head motions have been criticised for a long time"

Which is I guess why it says more wearing of *better* helmets is needed.
Given the risk to cyclists (in this country at least) I really don't think
it is dangerous enough to warrant any more special treatment than walking.
Training at school (we all learn the Green Cross Code etc) and well thought
out cycling infrastructure should do the trick.

Mark.

Tony Raven said:

Just come across this paper in the July issue of Accident Analysis and
Prevention. Curiously it concluded that more wearing of better helmets is
needed despite finding a 33% mortality rate in non-helmeted cyclists but a
100% mortality rate in the small sample of helmeted cyclists.

Skimming through the text - they don't claim that their findings provide
any evidence for the effectiveness of helmets. They provide references
supporting this stance at the start of the article.

Quoted message said:

Sometimes I
think I know how Copernicus must have felt.

http://shorterlink.com/?JWMFLM

Tony

Interesting to see who sponsored the study:

KBC Banking and Insurance (Brussels, Belgium) and Wolvenberg NV (Mechelen,
Belgium).

No prizes for guessing why they're interested.

The authors give a long list of circumstances where helmets provide very
limited protection and question the effectiveness of helmets in
bicycle-car collisions. It's all out in the open (as it should be) so I'm
not alleging any wrongdoing.

AC

Quoted message said:

you're probably right, but since it's a subscription site, all we can
see is the highly unelightening abstract.

I suppose I could accidentally attach it to an email if anyone wants a
copy.

Mark.

ps to send an email to me, you may want to turn up the heat.

Quoted message said:

Mark.

ps to send an email to me, you may want to turn up the heat.

Hi Mark,

I am guessing your email given above won't work, so could you get my
real e-mail address from www.thebikezone.org and e-mail a copy to me.
It may help in a new article on helmets I am putting together for my
site.

Regards,

Howard.

Howard said:

I am guessing your email given above won't work, so could you get my
real e-mail address from www.thebikezone.org and e-mail a copy to me.
It may help in a new article on helmets I am putting together for my
site.

It's on bikebiz, in the public news section (look for the story a few
days ago...oh ok here is the URL:
http://bikebiz.co.uk/daily-news/article.php?id=4177)

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 21:20:40 +0900, James Annan
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

It's on bikebiz, in the public news section

No, it's a different one. The new one from Aziz Sheikh is, however, a
masterpiece, proving as it does that helmets Save Your Life even if
worn vicariously (his reduction in head injuries is double the
increase in helmet use...).

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Just zis Guy said:

The new one from Aziz Sheikh is, however, a
masterpiece, proving as it does that helmets Save Your Life even if
worn vicariously (his reduction in head injuries is double the
increase in helmet use...).

Thanks Guy, I'm glad to see you have read my research carefully :-) My
version didn't have the numerical typo that cyclehelmets.org inserted
(it actually had a minor grammatical typo, but the numbers were right).

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 05:51:49 +0900, James Annan
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Thanks Guy, I'm glad to see you have read my research carefully :-)

Indeed. Must have made a change for CTC to receive an email from you
that wasn't about disc brakes, eh? ;-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Just zis Guy said:

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 05:51:49 +0900, James Annan
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Thanks Guy, I'm glad to see you have read my research carefully :-)

Indeed. Must have made a change for CTC to receive an email from you
that wasn't about disc brakes, eh? ;-)

Maybe I'm not just a one-trick pony after all...

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

James Annan said:

Quoted message said:

Indeed. Must have made a change for CTC to receive an email from you
that wasn't about disc brakes, eh? ;-)

Quoted message said:

Maybe I'm not just a one-trick pony after all...

I was amused that a Francophone colleague was unable to restrain himself
from referring to "Jules et Jim"...

Guy

Just zis Guy said:

I was amused that a Francophone colleague was unable to restrain himself
from referring to "Jules et Jim"...

We were amused, too.

In 1962 :-p

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/