Head Protection; Gear is not created equal, and it’s time to set standards
Dr . Tim Rindlisbacher, National Post

Here’s a simple metric for you to remember: 2V1. It’s not brain surgery. But knowing it could some day spare you from the need for brain surgery. 2V1 is an informal measuring rod for assuring that your sports helmet fits properly: When you’re wearing the helmet, there should be two (and only two) finger widths visible over the forehead; a V-shaped safety strap straddling each ear; and a single chin strap tightened to admit only one finger width between strap and chin.

The 2V1 metric is one of many valuable lessons students will learn on Brain Day, a program for 4th and 5th graders offered by ThinkFirst Canada, a brain safety group, sponsored by Aviva Insurance. This month, ThinkFirst will be “brainwashing” youngsters on brain safety before they hit adolescence and start taking major risks.

Children and their parents need to know more than how a helmet fits, however. They also need to be aware that all helmets are not created equal. This issue has come to the attention of Dr. Hedy Fry, member of Parliament for Vancouver-Centre. Fry has reintroduced a bill to the House of Commons requiring that all snow sports helmets (skiing and snowboarding) be approved by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). If it is passed, non-approved helmets would be banned under the Hazardous Products Act. That means it would be illegal for any company to advertise, sell or import any sports helmet not meeting CSA’s benchmarks.

Helmets for hockey and lacrosse are currently regulated by hazardous products legislation, and players of those sports appear to be better off for it. (CSA’s website quotes an official statement to the effect that since hockey helmets were regulated in 1973, there have been no reported deaths of players wearing CSA-approved helmets, and the frequency of severe focal injuries has been drastically reduced.)

ThinkFirst has the right idea. They’re teaching children to use their heads and protect their brains. It wouldn’t hurt if more of our legislators got the message as well. – Tim Rindlisbacher, BSc (PT), MD, Dip. Sport Med., is director of Sports Health at the Cleveland Clinic in Toronto.

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