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Research on helmet law in Australia
Bill Curnow: Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia The efficacy of bicycle helmets against brain injury Bicycle Helmets: A Scientific Evaluation The Cochrane Collaboration and bicycle helmets Bruce Robinson: Is There Any Reliable Evidence That Australian Helmet Legislation Works? Dorothy Robinson: Safety in numbers in Australia: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling…
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Bike helmet laws backfiring: doctor
Here is an article from a doctor who has actually researched this topic and is able to look at the issue from a broader perspective, taking into account the damaging effects on health from discouraging cycling. “The best evidence is that [a helmet] doesn’t make any difference to serious head injury when riding a bicycle … initial…
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Deceptive ad portraying cycling as dangerous
The Roads & Traffic Authority of NSW has commissioned an advertising campaign to promote bicycle helmets. As many of those campaigns are, it is deceptive, while portraying cycling as more dangerous than it really is. Here is a short extract from the ad: “Don’t think that little ride to the shops warrants wearing [a helmet]?…
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Misleading “study” from a government agency
In 2000, the Australia Safety Transport Bureau (ATSB), a government agency, released a “meta-analysis”, that claims to provide overwhelming evidence that bicycle helmets reduce the risk of brain injury. This claim was rebutted in 2003, highlighting a lack of understanding of scientific mechanism of brain injury, failing to take into account rotational acceleration: “This examination concentrates…
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Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia
This is a summary of an article by William J. Curnow published in Health Promotion Journal of Australia 2008 : 19 (1) 10-15 The Federal Government adopted the policy of compulsory bicycle helmets in 1989 to minimise the public cost of accidents and it induced the states and territories to pass the world’s first laws for…
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Impact Links
Summary of effects of helmet law Helmet laws and cycle use Helmet laws: what has been their effect? The Health Impact of Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia Public health hampered by false perception of cycling risk Helmet wearing and cycle use in Great Britain Do cyclists have an exaggerated…