BHSI Program for 2008
Summary: Our program this year continues to rely on our Web site for outreach but includes work on improving helmet standards and other activities as well.
1. The Web
BHSI will actively maintain this Web site with daily updates through the year. This is our thirteenth anniversary on the Web, and we expect to reach more than a million visitors in 2008, since we actually had nearly a million in 2007. You can see a recent weeks' count on our server statistics page. The Web is our most effective means of reaching consumers, researchers, the press, manufacturers and others to serve as a clearinghouse for bicycle helmet information, and the most rapid means of disseminating new developments in the helmet field. It revolutionized our work when we came on line in 1995. We continue to locate and scan new documents for our site in the belief that if it is not on the Web, it does not exist. Our precious volunteer time is better spent on enhancing and maintaining the Web site than any other activity.
2. Consumer Representation on Bicycle Helmet Standards Committees
BHSI continues to be active on the ASTM F8.53 Headgear Subcommittee, working on various task groups and participating actively in drafting and updating standards. BHSI sends a representative to all ASTM F-8 Committee meetings, to include the May, 2008, meeting in Denver and the November meeting in Maimi. BHSI's Director currently is 1st Vice Chair of the ASTM F8.53 subcommittee and Membership Secretary of the F8 Committee.
The ANSI Z90.4 committee has been disbanded.
BHSI also participates in periodic Consumer Product Safety Commission meetings to discuss the Federal bicycle helmet standard, and will send a representative to any CPSC meetings organized during the year.
3. The Brain Impact Injury Prevention Project
In November of 2002 the Cleveland Clinic sponsored a Symposium to discuss the latest information and new developments on Traumatic Brain Injury. Invited experts attended in medical, engineering, compliance, and modeling disciplines specific to the prevention, prediction and treatment of impact induced brain injury. Participants each gave a brief overview of the state of the art in their area of scientific expertise. Based on these presentations, and an interactive interdisciplinary discussion, a consensus emerged on research that will be required to provide a firm scientific basis for improving helmet standards and head protection. BHSI participated in the Symposium and will be participating in any followup meetings during this year and beyond. We are hopeful that this effort will supply the missing pieces that are preventing helmet standards from addressing milder forms of brain injury as opposed to the current concentration on the most traumatic injuries.
4. The National Bicycle Safety Network
BHSI is a member of the National Bicycle Safety Network. BHSI attends meetings and assists where possible in the operation of this organization, initiated by the US Department of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and a broad coalition of other governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in both injury prevention and bicycle safety. We participated actively in the steering committee that developed a comprehensive national campaign for bicycle safety known as the National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety. The campaign was based on planning done by a bicycle safety conference in Washington, DC in July of 2000. BHSI has taken on implementation of one of the strategies: providing information to drafters and proponents of bicycle helmet legislation at the State and Local levels. We partner with Safe Kids USA for that strategy. The group fell to low ebb in 2003 but revival began in 2004, led by the League of American Bicyclists. BHSI pledged $1,000 to support the organization, ten percent of our total budget, because we believe that this comprehensive approach offers the best solution for improving bicycle safety on the roads. Unfortunately the revival seems to have been short-lived, and we do not look for much NBSN activity in the near future, beyond coordinating the activities of some of the partners in bicycle safety. But the League has been developing a National Bicycling Strategy that could incorporate the elements of a thorough across-the-board approach to improving bicycle safety.
5. Participation in Other Organizations
Our budget constraints will prevent us from attending most of this year's meetings of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO).
- Newsletter. The Web is our main publishing outlet, and BHSI will continue to send its email newsletter, The Helmet Update to over 700 helmet researchers, promoters, manufacturers, standards committee members, press, medical researchers and interested helmet users. We send new issues only when there is news, rather than working up filler to keep up a set publication schedule. We discontinued our paper newsletter in 2004. You can be on our email list by sending us an email request. We only send about or five newsletters per year.
- Pamphlets. BHSI will update the Consumer's Guide to
Bicycle Helmets and A Bicycle Helmet for My Child at least twice during the year. We will also keep current our pamphlet on How to Fit a Bicycle Helmet and our pamphlet on Teaching Your Child to Ride a Bicycle. Although we send out paper duplicating masters of our pamphlets, many users download the files and print them locally.
- Helmets for the Current Season. Each year BHSI researches and publishes a compendium of the helmets we know to be on the market for the coming year. The annual article appears in January.
- Helmet Standards Comparison. BHSI will publish on the Web at least one annual update of our technical standards study comparing eleven international bicycle helmet standards.
- Frequently Asked Questions About Bicycle Helmets. BHSI will update
this writeup explaining many aspects of helmet design and performance to reflect new developments.
- Materials for local helmet promotion campaigns. Our Helmet Promotion Toolkit, a package of materials from numerous sources, will be updated frequently during the year as new materials become available. This useful resource for helmet promoters is now entirely available on the Web, but we still receive numerous requests for it on paper, with the accompanying pamphlet duplicating masters and a CD with our entire Web site including helmet promotion materials. We send out about 600 Toolkits per year, free, and we love to send them to teachers.
- Compendium of crash stories. BHSI updates this collection of stories frequently, primarily from email messages.
- List of Mandatory Helmet Laws. We keep our list of mandatory helmet laws current with frequent updates. There is no other list like it anywhere.
7. Briefings and background materials for the media
BHSI makes a special effort to provide materials to media people working on helmet articles or programs. Press people are increasingly making use of our Web site, where we have a Press Room section and a Quote of the Day for those on tight deadlines. We respond promptly to press emails to info@helmets.org or phone calls to 703-486-0100 as well.
8. Communications
BHSI has two Internet domains: helmets.org and bhsi.org. Both point to the same physical files on the same physical server. Our local area network is permanently connected to the Internet with a fiber optic broadband connection. Our Web server runs very reliably at Pair Networks, whose good rates have enabled us to reduce our Web costs considerably from the old days of running our own server here. We monitor our Web server every three minutes 24x7 and find that Pair is very reliable. There is no charge to our users for any of our Web services, and we do not intend to add one.
BHSI has standard telephone and voicemail service available at 703-486-0100. Fax can be activated on request.
9. Budget
BHSI plans to operate this year on a budget of about $11,000, sustained primarily by volunteer staffing and donations from bicycle riders who believe in this work. We have posted our budget details. We do not accept funding from helmet manufacturers or any organization involved in the retail sale of helmets. Checks made out to the Washington Area Bicyclist Association are welcome from anyone else! WABA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, so all donations are tax-deductible under IRS rules. To promote the fullest possible distribution we do not charge for our Toolkit for Helmet Promotion Programs, pamphlet masters, use of our materials or our Web server. We can certainly put all donations to good use! We also have a page up with our current non-monetary needs.
10. Contact Information
BHSI is headquartered at 4611 Seventh Street South, Arlington, VA 22204-1419. Our telephone number is 703-486-0100 for voice, fax or voicemail. Our email address is info@helmets.org. Our Web server is at www.helmets.org or can still be accessed at our original URL, www.bhsi.org
This page was last revised on: January 10, 2008.
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