Safety Equipment
Protective safety equipment has been developed and recommended for many different sports. The purpose of the equipment is to help prevent and reduce the severity of injuries. The use of safety equipment is usually recommended as a result of research by health professionals that identified a high risk of injury in a particular sport or recreational activity. The use of safety equipment may be advocated by the government, national medical organizations, public health professionals, safety groups, national governing bodies of sports or sports associations to prevent many different types of injuries, especially catastrophic injuries.
A national health objective in Healthy People 2000 regarding safety equipment states: "Extend requirements of the use of effective head, face, eye, and mouth protection to all organizations, agencies and institutions sponsoring sporting and recreation events that pose risk of injury."
Standards for Safety Equipment
The following national organizations have developed standards for safety equipment:
Equipment Certifications
Protective Eyewear:
Protective eyewear standards currently exist for racket sports, women's lacrosse, paintball, and youth baseball. They have been developed through voluntary consensus by subcommittees of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) which include concerned manufacturers, consumers, experts, and other interested parties. The following organization has been created to assist consumers, sports organizations, eye care professionals, manufacturers and sports officials. The PECC seal on protective eyewear will assure that it protects adequately and has been tested and certified.
Helmets:
Helmets have been proven effective in either preventing brain injury or reducing the severity of brain and head injuries. Helmets do not protect the neck.
Sport specific helmets have been designed to address different risk factors peculiar to each sport. Variables include different biomechanical forces on the skull and various possible impact sites. Forces differ because of distances to the ground associated with falls, playing surfaces, playing equipment, and speed of movement intrinsic to the sport.
Helmets have been either mandated or recommended for the following sports and recreational activities:
auto & motor sports -equestrian sports -rollerblading -snowmobiling
baseball -football -rugby- women's softball -
bicycling- hockey -skateboarding -wrestling
boxing -lacrosse- skiing
Standards for helmets have been developed by the American Society for Testing & Materials, National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, Snell Memorial Foundation, and the American National Standards Institute.
For more information on helmets, see the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation's publication list.
Mouth Guards:
Mouth protectors help prevent injury to the mouth, teeth, lips, cheeks and tongue. They also cushion blows that might cause concussions or jaw fractures. Even though a mouth protector is worn, it is still possible for a tooth to be knocked out; however, the wearing of a protector will reduce tooth injuries to a minimum. It is recommended that mouth guards be worn by all athletes during practice and competition of contact and collision sorts.
The American Dental Association recommends mouth guards for the following sports:
acrobatics football martial arts skiing volleyball
basketball gymnastics racquetball skydiving water polo
boxing handball rugby soccer weight lifting
discus throwing ice hockey shot putting squash wrestling
field hockey lacrosse skate boarding surfing
For more information on dental injuries see the Foundation's publication list.
Face Protection
The American Society for Testing and Materials has developed standards for face protection for baseball and ice hockey.
Ref.--http://www.nyssf.org/safetyequipment.html
Comments
Says a lot without actually answering the question. Well done!
by mister_c on May 5th, 2006
please answer the question
by davoomac on May 7th, 2006
do you even know anything about the sport? sounds like you just copied and paste a whole bunch of jibberish
by Skip_2_My_Lou on February 6th, 2007