Best Helmets
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What are the BEST helmets under $50, list price,model and brand.
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OnTheSnow with you on the go.
Won't hit the slopes without it now, ya never know what will happen
Ski Helmet Use
Helmets reduce injury rates and the severity of injury among skiers and snowboarders
Since 1997, the media, the resort community, consumer protection authorities, medical experts, and the skiing and snowboarding public have shown increased interest in helmet use on the slopes. In 1997, the American Medical Association recommended the use of helmets by children and adolescents while skiing or snowboarding. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's 1999 report "Skiing Helmets: An Evaluation of the Potential to Reduce Head Injury" concluded that 7,700 head injuries could be prevented or reduced in severity, and 11 fatalities avoided altogether, simply by helmet use. The Commission expressly recommended the use of helmets by children while engaged in skiing or snowboarding.
During the 1997-98 ski season, helmet use in Colorado (the nation's busiest ski state) was between 1-5%. In recent years, the national rate has risen to around 30%, with higher rates of use in the Northeast and West. Early criticism of helmets questioned their ability to prevent injury, impaired peripheral vision and blocked hearing and that helmets only offered low speed protection. The most aggressive, and consumer hostile argument was that helmet use increased high risk activity by giving false confidence to helmeted skiers. These complaints were based on urban legends, no empirical evidence, and were manufactured by paid experts covering for industry public relations concerns that families would hesitate to involve children in a helmeted activity. The most damning article specifically disproved the notion that high risk activity was encouraged by helmet use. Hagel, Pless, Goulet, Platt, Robitaille, "The Effect of Helmet use on Injury Severity and Crash Circumstances in Skiers and Snowboarders," Accid. Anal. Prev. 2005 Jan:37(1):103-8.
Head injury is the leading cause of death in skier/snowboarder fatalities.
There are two authoritative medical stories. The adult study is reported by: Levy, Hawkes, Hemminger, Knight, "An Analysis of Head Injuries among Skiers and Snowboarders." J Trauma. 2002 Oct;53(4):695-704. Levy reported:
Head injuries constitute only 5-15% of all injuries from ski and snowboard accidents, yet are the primary cause of serious disabling injuries and death. There are approximately 10 fatalities per year in Colorado from accidents on the ski slopes, and among the fatally injured that we have studied head injury was the cause of death in 87.5%; none were wearing helmets. In over 400 skiers and snowboarders with TBIs serious enough to warrant transfer and admission to our level I trauma center, only five were wearing helmets. All five patients had mild injuries and made full recoveries despite some very major mechanisms. Our most severely injured helmeted patient to date was a snowboarder who went off a 40 foot cliff and landed on his head, cracking his helmet in half. He sustained a severe concussion (or mild diffuse axonal injury) with loss of consciousness, but had a negative CT scan of the head. He did require inpatient rehabilitation, but ultimately has made a full recovery and is now attending college. All the rest of the helmeted skiers and snowboarders had mild concussions and negative CT scans. Among the unhelmeted only 69% had simple concussions with negative CT scans of the head. The rest had more severe injuries such as cerebral contusions, or subdural, epidural or intracerebral hematomas. Severe TBI, with coma and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 3-8, occurred in 15% of the unhelmeted skiers and snowboarders with head injuries, and their overall mortality rate after admission to the hospital was 4%. Id. at pp. 4 - 5.
Among all ages, wearing a helmet in the years covered by Dr. Levy's study resulted in a 75 percent reduction in the risk of traumatic brain injury.
Convinced of the positive benefits of helmet use, Dr. Levy, with other donors and the St. Anthony's Health Foundation worked to make helmets more readily available to snowsports participants. The rate of helmet use among equipment renters rose to 33.5 % in 2001. Efforts targeting younger or new participants have been very successful. Where helmets were made available to ski school participants, the rate of helmet use rose past 80 percent. Anecdotal evidence from a similar effort by doctors in Vermont suggests that, where available to equipment renters, helmet use among children rose to 75 percent.
In an authoritative pediatric study, "Trends in Pediatric Skier and Snowboarder Injuries," (TCH 2004) Lori A. McBride, MD, Ken R. Winston, MD, and Robert E. Breeze, MD reported on 215 patients, including skiers and snowboarders. Head injuries comprised 59 of the 215 patients, or 27.4%. There were three deaths in the series. All three were unhelmeted female skiers who struck a fixed object. No severe head injuries were reported among the helmeted children admitted following a skiing/snowboarding accident.
Both the pediatric and the adult study have shown that helmets effectively reduce the incidence and severity of head injuries from skier accidents.
In 1998, the Snell Memorial Foundation established a national standard S-98, for Protective Headgear for Skiing and Other Winter Activities. www.smf.org/ The testing for the Snell standard is more rigorous than the ASTM standard, F2040-02 Standard Specification for Helmets Used for Recreational Snow Sports. www.astm.org
The most recent study was authored by Hagel, B., and published in Caine DJ, Maffulli N (eds): Epidemiology of Pediatric Sports Injuries. Individual Sports. Med Sport Sci. Basel, Karger, 2005, vol 48, pp 74-119 (DOI: 10.1159/000084284). The study clearly demonstrates the value and improved safety of skiing helmets for childre