In a move likely to enrage many flocking to the slopes, a leading British insurer has signalled that it will become the first to insist skiers wear helmets if they are to be covered for head injuries.

All helmets have an inner rigid layer of foam designed to absorb the force of a blow to the head. Soft shell helmets are lighter and more comfortable with a decorative fabric or thin plastic outer covering over the rigid foam. Hard shell helmets have an additional rigid outer cover to protect against penetrating injury making them sturdier but heavy. This may also make them more durable and protective.

Helmets for winter sports have more insulation and better coverage than a bicycle helmet. The choice of a helmet type is up to the individual but proper fit is crucial. Ask a ski shop professional to assist with proper fit. Discard or have helmets professionally checked for damage after an accident.

Check out this website for more information on helmets www.lidsonkids.org

This article caught out attention in the Winter 2009 Issue of Wilderness Medicine Magazine.

Ms. Richardson’s death on Wednesday, a day after her skiing accident at Mount Tremblant in Quebec, is the latest incident on a Canadian ski hill to raise questions about whether prevention may have been possible if the victim had been wearing a helmet.

But some safety experts say there’s no guarantee a helmet would have been effective, since helmet quality is not regulated in Canada.

“If a helmet is sold in Canada, it doesn’t have to meet any standards whatsoever,” said Richard Kinar, a board member with the Brain Injury Association of Canada.

Unlike hockey helmets, recreational snow-sport helmets do not need to be tested for safety or quality to be manufactured or sold in Canada.

Even if a helmet has a sticker indicating it has been certified elsewhere, including the United States or according to an international standard, Canadian consumers have no way of knowing whether those helmets have been tested by an agency other than the manufacturer, said Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association.

Now, a number of politicians and sports-injury experts are lobbying to make testing mandatory.

Last month, federal MP Hedy Fry reintroduced a private member’s bill that would include recreational snow-sport helmets under the Hazardous Products Act, meaning that, like hockey helmets, they would need to be tested by the CSA.

“The recent serious brain injuries on Canada’s ski slopes are tragic reminders that these brain injuries are preventable,” Dr. Fry said yesterday in a news release. “The Canadian Standard Association has developed a new standard for recreational alpine-snow-sport helmets, but Canadians will never get the benefit from it unless the Conservative government takes urgent action.”

The piece of legislation proposed by Dr. Fry would ban the advertising, sale or import into Canada of alpine helmets that do not meet the national standards finalized by the CSA last year. The standards are based on consultations with doctors, safety experts and ski-industry stakeholders.

Yet the CSA has not used those standards to test a single alpine helmet sold in Canada, since the testing is not federally mandated, said Mr. Toderian.

Spurred on by the growing outcry over lack of regulation around helmets, the CSA plans to announce a new certification program, which may allow Canadians to have their helmets tested.

The new guidelines are more strict than the U.S. and international guidelines that already exist, said Patrick Bishop, professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo, who has done extensive research into safety aspects of hockey helmets and was part of the team consulted regarding the new standards.

“We believe that it will help, and we believe that it’s the best standard for ski helmets available,” Dr. Bishop said. The standards include requirements that make the helmets stand up against multiple impacts to the same area, and crashes at certain velocities.

They have the support of high-profile researchers including Charles Tator, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and co-founder of Think First, a non-profit organization that encourages safe sporting practices. “We do that with hockey helmets and I think that it has worked well,” he said.

He emphasized, however, that any helmet is better than no helmet at all.

“There is no such thing as a concussion-proof helmet,” he added, “but they do protect against the major brain injury.”

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office said actress Natasha Richardson died of bleeding in the skull following a blunt impact to the head.

“That’s what helmets are supposed to protect against, or at least reduce the risk of,” Dr. Bishop said.

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“We’ve come up with special testing and performance requirements for helmets, and a helmet with a CSA sticker on it will indicate that it meets our standards,” said John Walter, vice-president of standards development at CSA.

Previously, helmets sold in Canada were self-certified by the manufacturer to European and U.S. standards. The new tests and certification will represent the conditions on Canadian slopes and temperatures.

Testing of helmets will begin next month at a CSA facility in Pointe-Claire, Que., but there is no legal obligation for manufacturers to submit their products to testing.

The helmets will be tested for multiple impacts, shock absorption and penetration with sharp objects, and the tests will be done at various temperatures, from -25 C to 30 C.

The cold tests will represent our winters when plastics can be brittle and crack more easily. The hot tests are to ensure there’s no degradation of the materials over summer storage.

Helmets for skiing and snowboarding must withstand three separate impacts in the same spot to pass the tests, Walter said. Bike helmets, the so-called “crash helmets,” are good for one accident and must then be replaced.

Other considerations: Do the helmets adequately cover the ears? Will they stay on in a fall? Do they allow for unimpeded peripheral vision?

The CSA has been honing its protocols for two years, and it’s a tragic coincidence this announcement comes a week after actress Natasha Richardson died after sustaining brain trauma while skiing at Mont Tremblant, Que. while not wearing a helmet, Walter said.

“There has been a lot of media attention due to this unfortunate accident, but the fact is, there are 4.2 million skiers and snowboarders in Canada, and the more we get this message out, the better.”

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The CSA developed a new standard for alpine skiing and snowboarding helmets last June and will begin providing testing for certification of the protective headgear next month, said John Walter, vice-president of standards for the non-profit organization.

“This is the first such standard in Canada … specifically developed to meet the needs of Canadians by Canadians,” Walter said Monday. “These helmets are meant to sustain multiple impacts, where a number of helmets that are manufactured are only supposed to [take] one severe fall and they should be thrown out and another one purchased.”

The move means that manufacturers of alpine ski and snowboard helmets will have to submit them to be tested at an accredited laboratory before they can put the CSA mark on their helmets. But manufacturers are under no obligation to submit to testing.

That’s why Liberal MP Hedy Fry recently tabled a private member’s bill that would require non-CSA approved snow sport helmets to be banned under the Hazardous Products Act. She is urging the Conservative government to fast-track the bill through a Governor-in-Council order.

Currently, alpine ski and snowboard helmets are “self-certified” by manufacturers to American and European standards. In Canada, there are no requirements for helmets to meet any standard and some helmets may offer little protection at all.

The CSA is to formally announce its certification testing Tuesday, less than a week after actress Natasha Richardson died from a brain injury she sustained from a fall while at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant ski resort. She was not wearing a helmet.

Walter said the announcement had been planned for about two months, but he acknowledged that Richardson’s tragic death has made the issue of protection from head trauma even more timely.

“You hear people say, ‘I wouldn’t have worn a helmet before, but I will now.’ So obviously that kind of attention will help people be aware that they need to wear a helmet.”

Traumatic brain injury is the main cause of death among skiers and snowboarders, according to an international review published in 2007 in Injury Prevention, a peer-reviewed journal. Other research has shown that helmets used for skiing and snowboarding are associated with a 60 per cent reduction in head injuries.

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The Canadian Standards Association has specific standards for hockey and bike helmets, but doesn’t have similar standards to certify ski and snowboard helmets.

That’s something safety advocate and former pro-skier Richard Kinar said is not good enough.

“Without safety standards specific to skiing and snowboarding in Canada, people could be wearing something as safe as a bag of milk on their head and not know it,” he said.

Kinar would like to see the federal government get behind an initiative B.C.’s provincial government created to fund the CSA’s development of a skiing and snowboarding helmet certification.

He said that if the federal government focused on health care prevention instead of treatment, taxpayers could be saved a lot of money. However, some in the skiing and snowboarding industry do not see the need to have specific Canadian standards.

Rob McSkimming, vice president of business development at Whistler Blackcomb, said he is confident the Burton helmets used by the ski and board school are safe, because they meet the American ASTM standard.

“It’s not a question of which country the standard comes from,” he said. “We have had no evidence to suggest the helmets are not sufficient”

McSkimming said safety is something of utmost importance to Whistler Blackcomb.

“It is something we are constantly thinking about and talking about,” he said. “And right now we are comfortable with the helmets that we are using.”

Tom McIllfaterick chief executive officer of the Canadian Snowboard Federation thinks a Canadian certification of snowboarding helmets should be developed.

McIllfaterick is concerned with a lack of standard, because it could leave unsuspecting snowboarders vulnerable.

“Right now some of the stuff that passes as head gear is probably not up to standard,” he said.

Megan Zimmerman of Alpine Canada agrees. She said a safety level for skiing helmets should be established in Canada, because there is a standard for other sport helmets such as hockey and biking.

In March 2005, the government of British Columbia presented $50,000 to the Canadian Standards Association to support the initial development of safety standards for helmets used for snowboarding and skiing.

Spokesperson, Anthony Toderian, said the CSA is continuing to approach each Provincial/Territorial government requesting additional funding for a ski and snowboard helmet standards programs.

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Kinar, a former professional freestyle skier who patrols Cypress Mountain, was shocked to learn that Canada has no minimum safety standards for ski and snowboard helmets.

“I saw a very slow-speed crash, and a child wearing a helmet was knocked unconscious,” said Kinar, 47, a West Vancouver resident. “Then I started doing some research, and realized anybody could sell a helmet that didn’t have to meet any standards.”

Kinar, whose son Connor survived a bicycle crash thanks to a CSA-approved bike helmet, is now working with the Canadian Standards Association to develop minimum standards for snow-sport helmets.

“We undergo testing on bicycle helmets, ice-hockey helmets and ringette helmets,” said John Walter, a senior director with the Canadian Standards Association. “We support the value of having a minimum Canadian standard for ski and snowboard helmets.”

Walter wants to work with sports organizations, manufacturers and government regulators to come up with feasible standards that are satisfactory to all parties.

“There is no point in setting up a standard that sits on a shelf,” he said. “My commitment to Richard is that the CSA understands the value of this.”

Kinar said consumers do have some things to look for in choosing a helmet.

“Consumers can look for other countries’ stickers — ASTM 2040, Snell RS98 or CEN 1077,” said Kinar.

He warned that some stylish helmets don’t provide enough ear and face protection.

Still, he said, “wearing a helmet is always better than not wearing a helmet.”

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