Summer 2007 Editorial

Editorial
HELMETS: WHAT DO WE NEED?

This issue marks the 12th web edition of Headlines and the 16th year that we’ve been organizing the WHO Helmet Initiative.

Since 1991, we’ve seen a significant increase in helmet wearing for bicycle riders around the world. In the United States of America, the use of motorcycle helmets seems to be declining as state rules requiring their use are repealed, yet in the rest of the world, motorcycle helmet use seems to be increasing. Anecdotal reports point to an increase – worldwide – of helmet wearing for operators of low-powered motorcycles or motor scooters.

We’re seeing a decline in the number of research articles about helmets published. This is troubling to me. Is that because there has been less funding available for research? Are policy makers less interested in helmets? Do researchers think that all the important questions have been answered? Are other relevant topics taking up most of the time of researchers? Are young researchers yet to develop a keen interest in helmet research?

We know there are plenty of unanswered questions. For instance, in our “review” of the Cochrane review about bicycle helmet research, we learn that in spite of many answers, major questions remain. What’s the best way to promote helmet wearing? How do we maintain high rates of helmet use after wearing laws have been passed? In our news report, we learn that helmets are being promoted for many recreational activities but sometimes we don’t have the empirical data to design effective ones. And from a pubic health view, they may not be needed. In addition, promoting a helmet for a particular sport is sometimes based not on a statistically important spike in the number of head injuries but public pressure.  Finally, we learn about the rapid decline in the rate of head injuries to motor scooter riders in Italy following the passage of a wearing law, but the data seem to indicate that wearing rates are not being sustained.

As energy prices increases, in America, we’re seeing an increase in the number of people using bicycles and motor scooters to supplement their automobile use. And in my town, Atlanta, we’re beginning to see some are giving up their car completely. In this car-oriented city, that is quite a feat! Almost all of these new riders are wearing helmets. And that’s a good trend.

As always, we welcome your comments, photos, and articles for Headlines. Have a safe summer!

Philip L. Graitcer
Facilitator
WHO Helmet Initiative

Report: United States of America: Pediatric Injuries Decrease…. was it the Helmet Law?
A recent study published in the Journal of Trauma Nursing described a decline in bicycle-related head injury over a five-year period following passage of compulsory helmet wearing legislation for children less than 16 years. But the results of this study are inconclusive in identifying why the number of injuries was reduced. read more

Italy: Motor Scooter Riders and Helmets
Look at any tourist photos of Rome from the 1960s, and you’ll see beautiful fountains, pigeon-filled city squares, and lots of Italians on Vespa motor scooters. Today, you’ll still see the same beautiful street scenes, but now more than 90% of motor scooter riders are wearing helmets. That’s according to a new report by Giuseppe La Torre and his colleagues that examined head injury differences before and after the passage of a universal helmet wearing law. read more

Commentary: Helmets at the Tour de France
Although the reputation of this year’s Tour de France was tarnished because of drug scandals, in one area, the cyclists’ behavior was exemplary: helmet wearing. read more

Report: A Word from the Cochrane Systematic Review Corner
In a recent issue of Injury Prevention, Rebecca Ivers, from the George Institute in Australia, published an important review of reports from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on bicycle helmet research. read more

Helmets for All
In 2002, U.S. college track star Kevin Dare attempted to pole-vault 15 feet 7 inches during a college track meet. He didn’t make the vault, instead he missed and was killed when he landed head first in the steel takeoff box that vaulters use to catapult themselves into the air.

Four years later, a standards panel approved the first standards for a pole vaulting helmet, and now, several are being produced. read more