Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By Bruce Barcot t
P h o t o g r a p h y b y J o n at h a n S p r a g u e
Bicycle helmets do an
outstanding job of keeping
our skulls intact in a major
crash. but they do almost nothing
to prevent concussions and other
significant brain injuriesand the
very government agency created
to protect us is part of the
problem. the time has come to
demand something safer.
June 2013
57
About a year ago my 14-year-old daughter needed a new bicycle helmet. Her skull and level of sophistication had both outgrown her
old pink flowery one. We paid a visit to the local bike shop. On a far
wall our options were stacked five high and 10 wide: multivented
Specialized models, slick red and black designs by Giro, brightly
colored versions manufactured by Bell. There seemed to be little
rhyme or reason to the prices, which ranged from $40 to $120.
Do any of these provide better protection than the others?
I asked the guy working the floor. Does price reflect safety?
I trust the guy working the floor. Over the years hes sold me
tubes, tires, lube, shoes, gloves. He knows his merchandise.
Not really, he said. They all pass the same certification test.
The difference, he told us, is in style, fit, comfort, and ventilation.
That struck me as odd. We live in an age of near-comical product differentiation. You can buy cough syrup in 14 formulas, coffee
in dozens of permutations. Yet when it comes to bike helmets, I
later learned, were all wearing decorative versions of the same
Model T: a thick foam liner (actually expanded polystyrene, or
EPS) attached to a thin plastic outer shell. The basic setup hasnt
changed much since the first one was sold in 1975.
That classic design deserves serious plaudits. The
$40 helmet is one of the great success stories of the
past half-century. Like seat belts, air bags, and smoke
detectors, bike helmets save countless lives every year.
They do a stellar job of preventing catastrophic skull
fractures, plus dings and scrapes from low-hanging
tree branches and other common nuisances.
But what about concussions? A friend of mine, Sheilagh Griffin, commutes on her bike and races cyclocross
on weekends. During a recent race she had lost control
and flown over the bar. Though shed been wearing a helmet, headaches plagued her for the next few days. Her
doctor diagnosed a concussion. Twenty years ago that
wasnt such a big deal. It was a shake-it-off i njury. You
popped two aspirin and saddled up again the next day.
That has changed. Sheilaghs doctor told her to stop
racing until the headaches subsided. And then sit out
for one or two more weeks, to decrease the odds of a
vastly more problematic second concussion.
o v e r t h e pa s t y e a r i
t o u r e d h el m e t l a bs ,
interviewed br ain
r ese a r c h e r s a n d
g o v e r n m en t r e g u l at o r s ,
and pored over dust y
v o l u m es i n m e d i c a l
a r c h i v es . w h at i f o u n d
wa s t r o u bl i n g .
58
june 2013
A helmet torture
device inside the
Dome, testing lab
for Easton-Bell.
60
june 2013
F r o m P i t h t o P OC
The gr adual e volution of
protective headgear
1 8 8 0s: P i th helmet
Meant to cushion the head during a fall
from a high-wheeler-style bicycle, the
pith offers little protection.
1 9 8 5: Gi r o P r oli ght
The Prolight is the first helmet to prioritize
ventilation while still meeting safety
standards. It drives the industry toward
lighter headgear with better venting.
1 9 8 9: Bell Mi cr oshell
Bell puts a thin plastic shell over molded
EPS to allow the wearers head to slide
over pavement, counteracting foams
tendency to catch on the ground.
201 3 : s cott li n
Scott becomes the first U.S. brand
to introduce MIPS technology, which
adds no size or heft: The Lin actually
weighs 29.6 grams less than the similar
Grove II.Andrew J. Bernstein
June 2013
61
H a r d K n o c ks
T h e An at o m y o f a C o n c u ss i o n
If you fall off your bike and your head hits the ground, your skull absorbs energy from the impact. Wearing a helmet
helps, and the brains built-in shock absorbers soften the blow. But a hard enough hit will overcome those mechanisms, causing an injury such as a concussion. Because much of the damage occurs at a cellular level, concussions
can be tricky to diagnose; even with advanced scanning technology, this kind of trauma is hard for doctors to see.
But if they could peer inside a recently injured cranium, this is what they might observe.Brooke Borel
Gray matter
Cell body
White matter
Taking a spin
The head doesnt
sustain injury from
just the direct collision
with the road. The brain
also has to contend
with rotational acceleration (indicated by
the long orange arrow
at left), the shifting
action that occurs as
the head whips back on
the neck. It can result in
whats known as shear
strain, in which the brain
tissue bends or twists.
Imagine jerking a plate
of Jell-O quickly so it
separates, says Liying
Zhang, research professor in the biomedical
engineering department
at Wayne State University who studies head
trauma in the NFL.
Whats the
matter
The brain is made up
of tens of billions of
neuronsthe cells that
process information and
send the messages that
allow us think and react
to the world. The organ
has long been described
as being composed of
gray matter, but in
fact, there is a second
kind of tissue: white
matter, comprised
Communication
breakdown
Zhang and other scientists are still trying to
unravel which of the brain
deformations that occur
in a crash cause which
injuries. Its p
ossible that
during a concussion
some of the long axons
may get sheared like a
yanked strand of cooked
spaghetti breaking in two,
disrupting their signals
(below). Or cell membranes may rupture as
the axons are stretched
apart, causing chemicals
that are important to
neural communication to
leak. This cellular damage may cascade across
the brain, continuing
for days after the injury
occurs, and may cause
the common and often
gradually morphing
symptoms of concussion.
Axons
the condition
o f h e r h el m e t
i ll u s t r at e d
t h e p r o ble m .
t h e l i ne r wa s
i n ta c t w h i c h
m e a ns t h e
i m pa c t ene r gy
wa s a bs o r be d
by h e r b r a i n .
In other words, helmets are great at softening rare catastrophic blows. But what about more common crashes, the ones
that happen at slower speeds but can still result in concussion?
Testing those lesser blows, Parks and Horton said, might be
as simple as dropping the headform from 3 feet instead of 6.
Engineers in the Dome already do a fair amount of that, though
its not required, and Parks is among those pushing to make a
low-drop-height test mandatory for bike helmets. Designing a
helmet to offer both kinds of protection, however, isnt as easy
as you might think.
A bike helmet is designed to spread the energy of an impact
over space and time. The hard outer shell works like a shield for
the skull and distributes the blow across a larger surface area.
By crushing and cracking, the inner EPS liner attenuates impact
energythat is, it extends the hit over a longer period of time. Six
milliseconds, say, instead of two. Helmet experts call it slowing
the blow, and it can turn a lethal fall into a survivable one.
The problem is that EPS doesnt absorb much energy unless the
impact is forceful enough to make it start to disintegrate. Think of it
like a drinking glass, Parks said. If you hit it lightly it wont deform
at all. But if you hit it hard enough it will shatter. Its not really attenuating any impact energy until it starts deforming and cracking.
Making a helmet that deforms more easily might better protect the brain against smaller falls. But that could undermine the
helmets catastrophic-impact protection.
The post-crash state of my friend Sheilaghs helmet illustrated
the problem. The helmet doesnt appear to be damaged at all,
she said. Theres a little dent in the front of the shell, and another
one on the back right side.
Those marks indicate that the helmet protected her skull. But
the liner remained intact. That means a significant portion of the
impact energy was absorbed not by the helmet, but by her brain.
June 2013
63
h e a d way
how t wo ne w helmet designs ta ke
a im at the c oncussion problem
Spin Control ( fig. 1) A thin layer of viscous
liquid separates your brain from your skull, dissipating
some of the energy from a fall during impact. Two new
helmet systems try to diminish concussion-causing forces
by imitating that naturally occurring defense mechanism.
The Multidirectional Impact Protection System (MIPS),
from Sweden, and the Angular Impact Mitigation (AIM)
design, created by Legacy Biomechanics Laboratory in
Portland, Oregon, both incorporate an inner and outer
shell; in a crash, the outer layer rotates away from the
impact, which may reduce the odds of concussion.
Easing the Blow ( fig.2) Rather than hardfoam liners, which dont offer much protection from
slower-speed crashes, an AIM helmet will be made from
sliver-thin aluminum strips arranged in a lightweight
honeycomb structure. On impact, individual cells compress against one another, like an accordion, to reduce
the blows intensity. On the hardest hits, the structure
collapses like a crumple zone in an automobile. Legacy
Biomechanics engineers have tested prototypes, and
company officials say they hope to sell models priced
between $100 and $200 within a year or two.
then on the market and found that all but two were useless.
The key to Snivelys method was a test in which he dropped helmets straight down onto a flat anvil and other metal shapes. A metal
headform inside the helmet registered the impact. Snively estimated
that a naked head struck the surface with a force more than 1,000
times greater than gravity, or 1,000g, which is lethal. He required
that a helmet protect the skull by decreasing the impact force to
less than 300g, a number well below the point at
which researchers believed critical head injury
then defined mainly as skull fractureoccurred.
Thus a standard was born. A helmet that
passed Snivelys tests could be sold with a Snell
Certified sticker, which quickly became the
auto-racing and motorcycle-helmet industrys version of the Good Housekeeping seal
of approval. In 1972 the foundation issued a
standard for Bicyclist Helmets that was
essentially a one-page modification of the
motorcycle and auto-racing benchmarks. The
problem was that Snively set the bar too high.
It would take a motorcycle helmet to pass it,
so it was largely ignored, recalls David Thom,
a senior forensic consultant at Collision and
Injury Dynamics, a forensic engineering firm
based in Los Angeles that does independent
m e d i c a l r ese a r c h
a d va n c e d . c o n c e r ns
o v e r c o n c u ss i o ns g r e w.
b u t t h e g o v e r n m en t
s a f e t y s ta n d a r d h a sn t
b u d g e d . s i n c e 19 9 9, n o t a
s i n g le w o r d h a s c h a n g e d .
64
june 2013
biomechanical analysis. In 1984, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) issued a benchmark that bike helmets
could actually pass, relying on a variation of the drop test. The
Snell Foundation followed with a revised code, as did the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).
Though the standards were voluntary, most major helmet
companies adhered to at least one set. And the standards were
dynamic. ASTM, ANSI, and Snell officials kept up with biomechanical research and technologies. They continually revised
their criteria and forced helmet makers to keep pace.
June 2013
65
66
june 2013
wider range of riders head weights. It may soon consider Parkss little drop idea, to improve helmet
performance in less-than-catastrophic impacts.
But manufacturers are free to ignore ASTMs
voluntary standard. Helmet designers may take pride in achieving ASTM certification, but it means little to most consumers and
makes no difference under the law.
Dave Halstead, technical director of the the Southern Impact
Research Center, is head of the ASTM helmet subcommittee.
Hes widely considered one of the worlds top experts. And hes
frustrated. Were on our ninth or tenth revision to the 1999
CPSC standard, he told me. Meanwhile, the government hasnt
moved at all.
CPSC officials are frustrated, too. Though none would speak
on the record, one high-ranking official told me the agency knew
about the concerns over concussions. They have followed the work
of Halsteads helmet committee. What keeps them from revising
their outdated 1999 standard is an onerous set of cost-benefit
requirements that go far beyond that of any other government
agency. If they cant make an overwhelming case to change a
rule, it doesnt get touched. The requirement works like this: If an
incremental safety improvement results in higher manufacturing
C H AR L ES G U L L U N G
Michael Bottlang
of Legacy Biometrics
Laboratory helped
develop the AIM
system.
safety standard, and Adler says his agency is still years away.
The government standard for bike helmets will in all likelihood
never change. With the CPSC, those standards are carved into
stone, David Thom told me. It may take an act of Congress to
revise them.
L O S E TH E L ID ?
C o n t i n u e d o n pa g e 1 1 0
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SENSELESS
C o n t i n u e d F R O M pa g e 6 8
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SENSELESS
e liminate concussion risk, but rather reduces it. The technology also reduced linear
impact by 10 to 20 percent.
Those are significant numbers. Science
doesnt have perfect information about concussions, but in 2004, Wayne State University
researchers for the first time pegged risk of
concussion to rad/s2 data. By replicating the
speed and angle of NFL collisions on video,
and correlating each hit to the known medical
outcome, the researchers found that players
had an 80 percent probability of getting a concussion when the collision produced a 7,900
rad/s2 spin. At 5,900 rad/s2 the odds dropped
to 50 percent, and 4,600 rad/s2 resulted in a
concussion only 25 percent of the time. So
bringing rotational acceleration down by
a couple thousand rad/s2to where spin is
below the threshold for an almost certain
concussionis a big deal.
As the MIPS engineers fine-tuned their
system, a group of inventors in Portland,
Oregon, also attacked the problem. Steven
Madey is an orthopedic surgeon. Michael
Bottlang is a biomedical engineer. Like Von
Holst, they were concerned. More helmet
laws had come into effect, but head injuries
didnt go down at all, Madey recalled.
SENSELESS
beginning to grasp the seriousness of concussions. And theres more nuance here
than a frustrated Steenberg conveyed. Big
helmet makers devoting enormoustime
and expense to their products cant easily
adapt a radical new technology. Easton-Bell
and most other big companies were starting to make preliminary R&D forays into
the issuebut behind closed doors, away
from the eyes of competitors and attorneys
looking for their next class-action lawsuit.
Most helmet designers and marketers
are avid cyclists. The entry hall at the Dome
is jammed with staffers bikes. They value
their brains and those of their customers. But their customersfrom top pros to
weekendershavent been clamoringfor
safer helmets, and the unchanging CPSC
standards helped to ensure they were never
offered one. And the industrys independent safety experts have for years insisted
that no helmet can reduce concussion risk.
Repeated often enough, that becomes
accepted wisdom.
When the MIPS system appeared, those
experts dismissed it. Thats not doing
anything except taking up space, Dave
Halstead told me. Its a wonderful solution for a problem that does not exist.
Randy Swart, the ASTM helmet subcommittees co-vice chairman, said he found
the MIPS data just not compelling. He
called MIPS an unproven technology. I
think it just adds complexityand could
add to the thickness of the helmets.
In some cases, these assumptions were
not true. The MIPS system doesnt make
helmets larger or heavier. The idea that
the only safer helmet is a bigger helmet has
been accepted for so long that its become an
ingrained assumption.
Swart continued his explanation. You
have testing methodologies [for rotational acceleration] that are not accepted by
everybody, he said. Which is true. But reliable testing methods do exist. The helmet
industry has the ability to strap MIPS and
conventional helmets onto headforms and
test for rotational forces. Nobody is really
sure what the actual effect in the field is, he
said. The tests we do in the lab today dont
duplicate real-life crashesthey never have.
But those tests produce helmets that work
well in the field.
Thats trueif you dont count all the
concussions.
as he hopscotched across Europe and
the States, MIPS chief executive N
iklas
bike-helmet product manager, started talking with the MIPS team about three years
ago. We noticed when it crept into the equestrian market, Thompson recalled. The more
he looked into it, the more he believed all helmets need concussion-dampeningsystems.
But it wasnt an easy call.
Thompson sees his challenge as story and
price. He has to convince customers that a
MIPS-equipped helmet is safer, despite the
fact that all helmets pass the same safety test.
If the customer cant digest that message,
he says, youre adding a system that nobody
SENSELESS
will care about.
In late 2012, a third team jumped in. 6D, a
company co-created by bike designer Robert
Reisinger, recently unveiled a rotation-
dampening motorcycle helmet with what it
calls omnidirectional suspension. Reisinger
is an engineer who helped develop suspension
forks and disc brakes for mountain bikes. His
data says that the 6D helmet brings rotational
acceleration down to 6,000 rad/s2, just on the
threshold of concussion. Its suspension for
your brain, Reisinger told me. Were making a helmet to protect riders long-term. The
first 6D motorcycle helmet went on sale in
February. A bicycle version may follow within
a year or two.
The first generation of concussion-
dampening bike helmets is nowfinally
hitting the shelves. POCs $200 model,
Trabec Race, received strong reviews from
mountain bikers but sold few models here
due to the companys limited U.S. distribution. Scott, a more familiar brand, brought
the MIPS-equipped Lin to stores this spring.
It costs $120, about $40 more than the companys Groove II helmet, a comparable
modelwithout MIPS. An AIM helmet is
expected in the next year or so. And the German company Abus has announced plans to
market British designer Anirudha Surabhis
Kranium helmet, which replaces the EPS
liner with honeycombed cardboard. Surabhis design has garnered tech-geek buzz, but
theres no information about how it mitigates rotational acceleration. It also has yet
to pass the CPSCs water-immersion test.
Back in the Dome, the quest for new
designs has been a hot topic. Thom Parks and
five Easton-Bell colleagues last year attended a symposium on concussions organized
by the ASTMs helmet s ubcommittee. The
company has intensified its research efforts
in that area, assigning a team to focus specifically on innovative head protection.
As the market leader, Easton-Bell isnt
as nimble as a smaller company, but it can
marshal great resources. Cyclists can expect
something big from the Dome within two
to three years, Parks said, but he declined
to offer specifics: Our projects are proprietary, so we cant speak to whats in our innovation pipeline. But he reiterated that any
new technology must confer a real-world
advantage thats proven in a laboratory.
Similar initiatives have already bubbled
to the surface from the folks in the Dome.
Giro recently unveiled the Combyn, a snowsports helmet that contains three different
densities of vinyl nitrile (VN), an impact-