Protect your brain, it's the only one you've got.
That's the message Julie Wilson, who sits on the board of directors for the Brain Injury Association, Sudbury District, delivered Thursday on the final day of school in Sudbury, as well as the end of Brain Injury Awareness Month. It's an important message, given the fact only 31 per cent of people over the age of 12 wear their helmets while cycling, according to Statistics Canada.
“Every person, no matter their age, should be wearing a helmet while cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading, scootering or using a Pogo stick,” Wilson said.
“A broken leg or arm, scratches and bruises can be seen (and healed). Injuries to your brain cannot. Our brain is important to us, so treat it with respect and use a helmet.”
The law requires anyone under the age of 18 to wear a helmet while on a bicycle; however, there is no such law for youth who are skateboarding or rollerblading.
That's why the Helmet Awareness Campaign came into being in June 2011. The campaign aims to increase the use of helmets in Sudbury, increase awareness and knowledge about the need for helmets in preventing head injuries and death in children, and increase the number of helmets purchased in Sudbury.
To that end, the Brain Injury Association, Sudbury District offers vouchers for discounts on helmets to anyone who wants one.
Need more proof of the importance of wearing a helmet? Last year, there were 140 visits to the Emergency Department at Health Sciences North for head injuries sustained while doing leisure activities like cycling, skateboarding, horseback riding, snowboarding and skiing.
Furthermore, bicycle injuries are the third-leading cause of injury for children between the ages of 10 and 14, with traumatic brain injuries accounting for almost one-third of all cycling-related hospital admissions, according to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
“If you wear a properly fitted helmet, you can reduce head injuries by more than 80 per cent, and facial injuries by two-thirds,” said Dr. Jason Prpic, an Emergency Department physician and HSN's medical director of prehospital care and trauma services.
Greater Sudbury Police Service has a message for parents: It is easy to enforce helmet safety as a parent, but it is even more important to lead by example.
Helmet safety isn't just for youth, it is for the entire community.
For more information about the campaign, or to find out about vouchers for $15 of the price of helmets, visit biasd.ca.
