more helmet lies

http://tinyurl.com/a4q8a

Fromm the Nottingham Evening Post:

"The Evening Post's Use Your Head campaign encourages people to wear
cycling helmets. It was launched earlier this year to help reduce the
number of injuries and deaths on bikes.

"Latest figures showed that 100,000 children are injured on bicycles
each year. About 70% of those who die suffer head injuries. Helmets
reduce the risk of such injury by 85% and the risk of brain injury by
almost 90%."

regards, Ian SMith
--
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|o o|
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"Ian Smith" wrote in message
...
http://tinyurl.com/a4q8a

Fromm the Nottingham Evening Post:

"The Evening Post's Use Your Head campaign encourages people to wear
cycling helmets. It was launched earlier this year to help reduce the
number of injuries and deaths on bikes.

"Latest figures showed that 100,000 children are injured on bicycles
each year. About 70% of those who die suffer head injuries. Helmets
reduce the risk of such injury by 85% and the risk of brain injury by
almost 90%."

It also says:-

"Save your skull" is being run by Mountain Bike UK (MBUK) to ensure all
off-road cyclists wear proper head gear.

Many people here have said in the past that they wear a helmet off road (by
which I think we mean something a little more extreme than a Sustrans route
or the local towpath).

The paper -- perhaps with the connivance of those issuing the press release
are allowing a confusion as to the definition of 'off-road' and are
promoting B****'s discredited propaganda figures which, even if true, elide
from 100,000 injuries (mostly grazed knees) to 70% of (a vastly smaller
number of) deaths involve (but may not be the primary cause of death) a head
injury (which might be superficial lacerations of no significant risk to
life while what killed you was the multiple internal injuries elsewhere).

Clarity, honesty and journalism are, sadly, not closely related arts.

T

I submit that on or about 02 Sep 2005 19:01:28 GMT, the person known
to the court as Ian Smith made a statement
in Your Honour's bundle) to
the following effect:

"Latest figures showed that 100,000 children are injured on bicycles
each year. About 70% of those who die suffer head injuries. Helmets
reduce the risk of such injury by 85% and the risk of brain injury by
almost 90%."

Those "latest figures" have been traced to a report about *American*
cycling injuries, and have zero relevance to the UK. The other claims
are, of course, standard bull****.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Tony W wrote:
"Ian Smith" wrote in message
...

http://tinyurl.com/a4q8a

Fromm the Nottingham Evening Post:

"The Evening Post's Use Your Head campaign encourages people to wear
cycling helmets.


snip


The paper -- perhaps with the connivance of those issuing the press release
are allowing a confusion as to the definition of 'off-road' and are
promoting B****'s discredited propaganda figures

encore du snip


Clarity, honesty and journalism are, sadly, not closely related arts.

Many years ago, when I was growing up in Nottingham, the Evening Post
was crap.

It appears that little has changed.

Reply sent:


Your story says:

"Latest figures showed that 100,000 children are injured on bicycles
each year."

What figures? The only source I know of for that figure is a paper by
Lee and Mann, of the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust, which is in turn
referenced to a paper about *American* cycling injuries, which is of
no relevance to the UK at all. If this figure is accurate then the
severity of these injuries is actually unusually low, since only
around 2% of them merited admission to hospital.
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/mf.html#1100


"About 70% of those who die suffer head injuries."

This is true for all impact deaths. I have figures from the
Department of Health which show that children hospitalised for cycling
injuries are less likely to suffer head injury than those hospitalised
for injuries sustained as pedestrians. In both cases the major cause
of serious and fatal injury is motor traffic, which accounts for one
in ten child injury admissions but half of fatalities.

The number one thing the Evening Post could do to reduce serious and
fatal head injuries in children is to persuade readers to drive slower
and more carefully! The second-best thing is probably to promote good
quality cycle training, and third would be a campaign on bike
maintenance - perhaps sponsoring "Dr. Bike" sessions in shopping
centres, schools and other places where cyclists congregate. I have
comments from both TRL and the BMA which show that, of all common
cycle safety interventions, helmets are the *least* effective in
reducing cyclist injuries.


"Helmets reduce the risk of such injury by 85% and the risk of brain
injury by almost 90%."

False. Helmets do almost nothing to reduce the risk of serious or
fatal brain injury (there is very little evidence relating to severe
injury, and actually much of it shows that helmeted cyclists fare
worse). The figure of 85% of head injuries and 88% of brain injuries
(brain injuries being, in this case, almost exclusively mild
concussion - you did know that, didn't you?) is speculative and has
never been repeated even by the same research group.

In fact, the figure they found in their study was about 75%, as
compared with a 73% "reduction" in broken legs, but they decided that
the "real" figure was higher. And it wasn't that helmets "prevented"
these injuries, but that the helmet group in the study (mainly white,
middle-class riders in family groups on bike paths) had a lower
incidence of head injury than the "case" group, which was more likely
to be black or Hispanic, low-income, male, riding alone on city
streets. To represent the difference between these groups as being
entirely due to helmet use is clearly foolish, yet that is what the
claim you repeat amounts to.

There are other reasons why this figure is false, see
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/mf.html#1131

The 85%/88% figure is so widely quoted that it is hard to believe it
is specious, but in fact a recent study showed that almost all widely
cited studies of this type (observational case-control) turn out to e
either completely wrong, or at least greatly over-optimistic. One
might be given to speculate why, with such an enormous range of
studies to choose from, with figures for efficacy ranging from the
negative to 85%/88%, it is always the largest numbers which are cited,
despite the fact that anybody reasonably well-informed knows they are
false. It is almost as if lower (but more accurate figures) are not
impressive enough!

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

in message , Tony W
') wrote:


"Ian Smith" wrote in message
...
http://tinyurl.com/a4q8a

Fromm the Nottingham Evening Post:

"The Evening Post's Use Your Head campaign encourages people to wear
cycling helmets. It was launched earlier this year to help reduce the
number of injuries and deaths on bikes.

"Latest figures showed that 100,000 children are injured on bicycles
each year. About 70% of those who die suffer head injuries. Helmets
reduce the risk of such injury by 85% and the risk of brain injury by
almost 90%."

It also says:-

"Save your skull" is being run by Mountain Bike UK (MBUK) to ensure all
off-road cyclists wear proper head gear.

Many people here have said in the past that they wear a helmet off road
(by which I think we mean something a little more extreme than a
Sustrans route or the local towpath).

The paper -- perhaps with the connivance of those issuing the press
release are allowing a confusion as to the definition of 'off-road' and
are promoting B****'s discredited propaganda figures

I think there's also the point that many in the Mountain Bike community
genuinely believe that polystyrene foam deflector beanies are magic and
will save your life in all incidents. Fortunately, the vast majority of
mountain bike falls have much lower closing speed than road traffic
crashes, and in an off-road environment there are a lot of things to
fall on which aren't very hard. But nevertheless, if you come off hard
enough onto a rock or a tree, it's pretty easy to achieve the sorts of
energies which make a helmet irrelevant.

Helmets /are/ more relevant of-road. But they still aren't magic.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
There's nae Gods, an there's precious few heroes
but there's plenty on the dole in th Land o th Leal;
And it's time now, tae sweep the future clear o
th lies o a past that we know wis never real.

Many years ago, when I was growing up in Nottingham, the Evening Post
was crap.

It appears that little has changed.

I was once pictured in the NEP

Simon Brooke wrote:

I think there's also the point that many in the Mountain Bike community
genuinely believe that polystyrene foam deflector beanies are magic and
will save your life in all incidents. Fortunately, the vast majority of
mountain bike falls have much lower closing speed than road traffic
crashes, and in an off-road environment there are a lot of things to
fall on which aren't very hard. But nevertheless, if you come off hard
enough onto a rock or a tree, it's pretty easy to achieve the sorts of
energies which make a helmet irrelevant.

Helmets /are/ more relevant of-road. But they still aren't magic.


Its the one time I still wear a helmet. Its because mountain biking
involves a lot of falling off (if you are trying properly) and a lot of
that falling off happens at low speeds onto ground that can be quite
lumpy with rocky bits pointing out of it (which negates the usual
protection where you tend to be able to hold your head off the road
using your shoulders in a slow fall). But I agree that it won't help
you in a high speed fall on a rocky descent or into a tree except for
the usual scratches and grazes proviso.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

MSeries wrote:
Many years ago, when I was growing up in Nottingham, the Evening Post
was crap.

It appears that little has changed.


I was once pictured in the NEP


So was I. We had a presentation by the mayor for all the cubs getting
their Gold Arrow awards. I bet Mum's got the paper somewhere.