Making football safer one helmet at a time

Mar 31, 2011 11:29 AM

More than 100,000 concussions were diagnosed among high-school football players in the 2009-2010 school year. That's why Senator Tom Udall recently drafted the Children's Sports Athletic Equipment Safety Act, which is intended to strengthen the voluntary safety standards for kids' and teens' football helmets in an effort to reduce the incidence and severity of concussions.

If passed, the legislation will improve safety standards for kids' and teens' football helmets in three ways:

Within nine months of the bill being passed, the voluntary industry standards for football helmets will be required to address and mitigate the unreasonably high risk of concussion. If the standards are deemed inadequate, then the Consumer Product Safety Commission must develop a mandatory safety rule for football helmets.

Reconditioned helmets will require independent, third-party testing for compliance with safety standards.

Helmets will have to carry labels that give warnings about limitations of protection, the date of manufacture, and the date of reconditioning.

The bill also charges the Federal Trade Commission to take enforcement action against any company that falsely or misleadingly advertises the safety of the helmets it manufactures.

Consumers Union has endorsed this legislation with the belief that it will change the incidence and severity of kids' and teens' football-related head injuries in the near future and prevent unnecessary brain damage in children.

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