The Helmet Update
Volume 28, #6, August 10, 201
All issues index
NYU study: Is foam a hidden danger in helmets?
A study at NYU does not conclude that foam is a hidden danger in helmets. Press releases have distorted the findings to
produce sensational headlines.
In August of 2010 NYU produced a press release saying that:
"In a counter-intuitive finding, scientists at New York University (NYU) and Polytechnic Institute of New York University
(NYU-Poly) report that the foam used in helmets and other body armor indeed absorbs damage when compressed slowly but can
cause as much injury as a hard object when hit at high speeds."
Both the press release and an article posted by
NYU on the Futurity site using identical language feature photos of football players.
The journal article reveals that the researchers were testing only syntactic foams, a specialized type of foam not
generally used in sports helmets, although it may be in some military helmets. The foam tested is rate-sensitive, and the
press release writers appear not to understand why that could be a beneficial, concluding that if the foam does not give
enough in heavy impacts it could fail to protect. It probably could if the helmet were designed by NYU journalism school
students. When rate-sensitive foams are properly tuned for a helmet, they provide softer landings for lesser impacts and
stiffen up at higher impact levels to prevent the helmet liner from "bottoming out" and transmitting all of the energy to
the wearer's head.
The press release certainly makes for a sensational headline.
We bought the article. It contains only a scientific report on impacting some syntactic foam in a lab, and how the
failure mechanism changes at different strain rates. The word helmet does not appear. The lab test equipment bears no
relation to helmet test equipment. The foam tested could not be used for football helmets, since it is a one-hit
foam.
We concluded that we had been victimized by a university news room trying to punch up the release of a journal article by
one of their departments.
The Helmet Update - Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
Randy Swart, Editor
4611 Seventh Street South
Arlington, VA 22204-1419 USA
(703) 486-0100 (voice)
(703) 486-0576 (fax)
www.helmets.org