Canadian Resources for Helmet Promotion
Summary: Here are some Canadian helmet promotion resources. Our other stuff is US-oriented.
Unfortunately most of the links below are to dated resources, and a web search should bring you fresher pages.
The most recent study on Canadian bicycle safety we have seen is this 2024 article by Rosenfield et al on
Improving cycling safety for children and youth in
Paediatrics & Child Health. It has Canadian stats and other data that may be useful, and takes a reasoned position putting infrastructure improvements and other safety elements along with bicycle helmet promotion.
In years past the best source for Canadian bicycle helmet promotion resources that we have seen was Capital Health in
Edmonton. They have morphed into the Alberta Health Services site, and most of their materials are down. But you may be
able to still find some of them. Here is a page titled
Bike Helmet vs. Hockey Helmet: "What's the difference?" on the Wayback Machine page from the old site. Here is their
helmet promotion resource kit. It includes a very well thought-out list of everything you need to take along for a
promotion session. And here is their report on
an observational study of helmet wearing rates, the gold standard in estimating how many riders wore helmets in those
days.
They once had a Canadian source for the jello brain molds, and a Swedish helmet manufacturer who had the egg helmets that
are difficult to find now. Here is
the web.archive.org page with all of their helmet resources.
The
Saskatchewan
Cycling Association produced this page on bicycle vs. hockey helmets.
You may be interested in
this description of the Canadian child bike helmet standard.
And here is our page on
Quebec's rejection of a helmet law back in 1997.
This article on
Bicycle Helmet Use in British Columbia: Effects of the Helmet Use Law was published in January of 2000.
This 2008 article in
Pediatrics is about
results of Ontario's helmet law. "CONCLUSIONS. The
bicycle-related mortality rate in children 1 to 15 years of age has decreased significantly, which may be attributable in
part to helmet legislation. A similar reduction for bicyclists 16 years of age through adulthood was not identified.
These findings support promotion of helmet use, enforcement of the existing law, and extension of the law to adult
bicyclists."
A 2007 article titled Head first: Bicycle-helmet use and our children's safety (August 2007 Canadian family physician
Medecin de famille canadien 53(7):1131-2, 1136-7, Keezer et al.) reviews Canadian injury and helmet use stats, as well as
the effect of mandatory helmet laws. The authors conclude that legislation is called for in the remaining provinces who
do not have laws.
This 2016 article titled
Challenges in the Accurate Surveillance of
Booster Seat and Bicycle Helmet Usage by Children: Lessons from the Field appeared in the International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health. The four authors are based in Winnipeg.