Helmets

Cycle helmets are interesting - they've gone from something absolutely nobody who wasn't a professional cyclist would wear when I was a kid to being almost standard bike gear.

My nephew J is currently very unhappy as he's not allowed to ride his new bike or use his new rollerblades until Wiggle manage to send Baby Sister a helmet in his size (they have been failing miserably up to now).

I don't cycle without one following my accident - mine's a full face version as I'm specifically nervous about the prospect of smashing my face.

So why interesting?

My standard helmet wouldn't have helped me much at all when I smashed my face - I'd still have lost a tooth, my top lip would have required a surgeon to put it back together, I'd still have broken my nose. It would have prevented the grazes on my forehead. But I now won't cycle without one - my helmet is a device I use to kid myself cycling is safe!

On a business trip to Utrecht, I was pleased to see so many cyclists but surprised to see very few helmets. Some children (but by no means all) but virtually no adults. There's plenty of infrastructure for bikes - loads of paths separate from traffic - but also plenty of cyclists on roads.

Arguments for helmets are pretty straightforward, but there is another set of views - it can be linked to a decrease in cycle use - so from a public health perspective, helmets could be argued to be detrimental as they may put people off taking exercise.

There's also an argument that wearing a helmet may encourage cyclist to take more risks and drivers to approach cyclists with less care. Even with lots of cyclists, the Netherlands had the lowest number of cyclist deaths per billion km cycled in 1996 - apparently! The BMJ article argues that the injury rates per cyclist are lower when more people cycle - so in a weird way, helmets may be detrimental to cyclists' health as being compelled to wear one, puts people off cycling.

Having said all that, I'd be unhappy if I saw any of the kids in my family cycling without a lid - so I guess I'm not convinced by the arguments against!