Are those Bicyclists Serious about their Funny Little Bicycle Helmets? As a Matter of Fact, you should be Too
The kind of concern that the environmentally conscientious feel for the state of the planet today can be so persistent and pressing to them that they set very high standards of environmental responsibility to hold themselves to. If they used to drive a large car before, now they have to trade it in for a hatchback; if it was a hatchback they used to drive they would raise the standard to meet and settle for no sacrifice smaller than a bicycle. Have you seen how bicycles are everywhere these days? It's the environment thing. While pedestrians may not be allowed on the street and cars aren't allowed on sidewalks, bicycles are amphibious that way - they can thrive in either environment. Pedestrians and car owners aren't that used to these new creatures on their turf yet - the bicycles; at least not in such numbers. When you are on a bicycle, and the people around you don't really wish to acknowledge your presence, it can turn out to be less than safe. And that's where bicycle helmets come in.
ikers don't often realize how vulnerable there are. It's easy to say to yourself that here you are on a low-speed vehicle - how bad could it be if you were to fall off? These things can be deceptive in how harmless they seem. No matter where you ride, the busy streets of a city, or the dirt tracks in the woods next to your city, bicycle helmets are more important than you could ever imagine. Consider this statistic - in people using bicycle helmets, instances of head injuries are down 90%; facial injuries are down 70%, according to the Cochrane Database System Review. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, nine out of ten of all bicyclists who die in accidents have no helmet on. Your head is a delicate object, no matter how hard it seems. People make the mistake of thinking that it must take a terrible knock to cause injury. The brain isn't like an arm or leg though - it isn't easy to understand the kind of damage an injury could cause. It's full of tiny circuits; the smallest kind of damage could mean something really serious.
Several states in the country have laws that make it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to ride a bicycle without a helmet. Some counties in the country, have even stricter laws and require everyone, adult and child, to wear a helmet. This isn't really a good idea. If anything, adults are more at risk of injury in the event of a knock of some kind. As we grow older, past 30 for instance, our brains become somehow smaller. That puts more room in our skulls, room in which the brain can move and knock itself against the insides of the skull when there is a shock. And right there is your reason to see why brain damage is a possibility riding a bicycle and falling off one, over 30. If you are worried about one more thing to spend on, here's a bit of encouraging news - almost any low-priced helmet you could get at a standard retailer, does the job just as well as a fancier product. And bicycle helmets come in plenty of sizes, colors and styles to suit everyone too.
Before you put down your $10 for helmet though, make sure that it's well built, and meets federal standards. Look for the certifying sticker from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to see that it does. Make sure that your helmet fits you properly and doesn't have sharp edges that could hurt you in the fall. It would be good idea to get one with reflective stickers on it, to make sure you are visible in the dark; and when you fall on your noggin once, make sure you discard the helmet for a new one. These are made of a kind of polystyrene. They are supposed to compress and absorb the blow when you fall. If they compress once, they won't compress as well the next time. Helmets don't work more than once.