Originally Posted by
martl
You seem to look for a compelling reason not to wear a bike helmet. I'm doing the opposite... i'm waiting for a compelling reason to wear one (and haven't found one yet).
I don't know if this counts as compelling, but these conclusions of some formal meta-analyses and general surveys of helmet studies might be interesting:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roa...ic_Crash_5.pdf:
This formal summarisation of studies of individual cyclists in various settings has confirmed
the clear benefits of helmets in terms of injury risk. The upper bounds of the 95% confidence
intervals provide conservative risk reduction estimates of at least 45% for head injury, 33%
for brain injury, 27% for facial injury and 29% for fatal injury.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/rmd/project.as...rojectID=10083:
The critical review of the extensive literature concludes that there is a considerable amount of scientific evidence that bicycle helmets are effective at reducing the incidence and severity of head, brain and upper facial injury.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...01457500000488:
Based on studies from several countries published in the period 1987–1998, the summary odds ratio estimate for efficacy is 0.40 (95% confidence interval 0.29, 0.55) for head injury, 0.42 (0.26, 0.67) for brain injury, 0.53 (0.39, 0.73) for facial injury and 0.27 (0.10, 0.71) for fatal injury. This indicates a statistically significant protective effect of helmets.
(but see
http://www.cycle-helmets.com/elvik.pdf for a different interpretation of the data)
http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/us...d/CD001855.pdf :
Wearing a helmet dramatically reduces the risk of head and facial injuries for bicyclists involved in a crash, even if it involves a motor vehicle. ...Helmet use reduces the risk of head injury by 85%, brain injury by 88% and severe brain injury by at least 75%. The protective effect of helmets for facial injury is 65% for the upper and mid facial regions. No protection is provided for the lower face and jaw.
http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/pr...meteffect.html :
In all studies reviewed, there are consistent data indicating that wearing an industry-approved bicycle helmet significantly reduces the risk of head injury during a crash or collision. The reduction in risk is somewhat dependent on whether the controls originate from the emergency department or the population at large. However, population-based controls provide the best estimate of helmet effectiveness and allow it greatest generalizability. Overall, helmets decrease the risk of head and brain injury by 70 to 88 percent and facial injury to the upper and mid face by 65 percent.
http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheet...le_helmets.pdf :
Research has shown that a bicycle helmet provides protection against serious head and brain injury. The best estimates that are presently available indicate that the use of bicycle helmets decreases the risk proportion of sustaining or not sustaining head injury by 42%, that of sustaining or not sustaining brain injury by 53%, that of sustaining or not sustaining facial injury by17%, whereas the odds ratio for sustaining or not sustaining does on the other hand increase by 32%.