#1099 Anti-Protectionism

Sometimes, when I talk of all the things I survived from my youth, I get a little dismissive of today’s advances like airbags and bicycle helmets and such. I shouldn’t. It’s important to remember that we are the ones who survived not having those things. Many of those that didn’t, didn’t.
But I read an interesting article the other day about how car seats can be dangerous. Not in and of themselves, like being laced with fireproofing chemicals that totally screw up a baby’s growth hormones.
They’re dangerous because parents use them for one-stop napping. It’s the carryall car seat, going straight from the car to the stroller to four hours at the mall. The kid is curled up like a baby in a Barcolounger the whole time.
And it’s not so good for his development. Folding the baby up in a car seat is good and safe for traveling in a car, the rest of the time it’s compressing his lungs, restricting his airways and lowering those important blood oxygen levels by 20 percent—the oxygen levels that promote growth and feed the growing brain.
So if you’re a parent you might want to take notice. You don’t want your kid growing up and saying, “Dude, I scored low on my SATs because my folks had me scrunched in my car seat for-like-ever...”
Which, speaking of driving, brings me to another safety subject. The other day I was driving around and these two 12-year-oldish kids on bicycles were riding to football practice. I surmised this because they had on football pads and uniforms.
Strangely, their football helmets were dangling from their handlebars, and on their heads were bicycle helmets. So my question, which helmet don’t they trust?
If a helmet is good enough to keep you from getting hurt smashing into other people with helmets on the field, wouldn’t it be equally good at protecting you should you fall off a bike?
Here’s why I asked. One of the kid’s dangling helmets jammed between the handlebar and his knee when he was turning and almost made him crash his bike.
Two helmets are not safer than one.
America, ya gotta love it.