Each year, tens of thousands of people go to emergency rooms in this country with eye injuries related to sports. The injuries are less likely in football, in part because a regular helmet offers some protection, but the risk remains, the researchers said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25safety.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
Plastic face shields that attach to helmets are strong enough to protect players’ eyes from even the most powerful blows, a new study finds.
Researchers found that even when two brands of shields were pummeled by baseballs shot out of air cannons at speeds of up to 218 feet a second, they did not fail. The study appeared in a recent issue of Optometry. The lead author was Dr. Kathryn R. Baker of Ohio State University.
Each year, tens of thousands of people go to emergency rooms in this country with eye injuries related to sports. The injuries are less likely in football, in part because a regular helmet offers some protection, but the risk remains, the researchers said.
After a 1993 report cited more than 2,000 eye injuries among people under 25 who had been playing football, two medical groups recommended the use of the face shields.
For the study, the researchers had planned to find the amount of force necessary to crack half of the shields. But though a few fasteners were dislodged, the shields did not break even when the air cannon was modified to go beyond its highest setting.
The researchers did find, however, that the masks weakened as they aged, and they said more work should be done to look into that issue.
The researchers also examined the masks to see how well players could see through them and found the visibility acceptable.
Dr. Gregory W. Good of Ohio State, a co-author of the study, said the shields should be worn by people who have good vision in only one eye.
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