Head injuries driving new helmet designs

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Only longtime use will determine whether new football helmet designs protect the brain against dangerous concussions, head injury experts said.

An estimated 1.6 million to 3.8 million recreation-related concussions are sustained annually in the United States, many of them on football fields.

Football helmet makers are redesigning their products in hopes of providing protection against both routine and extreme blows, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Adams is lining its helmets with foam of varying degrees of density, while Riddell is marketing a helmet that sends a wireless alert to a team's training staff when a player takes a potentially dangerous hit. Xenith is marketing the X1, a helmet with air-cushioned shock absorbers.

While the redesigned helmets show promise, they still can't stop a player's brain from rattling inside the skull like a scrambled yolk inside a raw egg, said Dave Halstead of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, an independent group that certifies helmets.

"Anyone who says to you that they have a helmet that eliminates concussions is lying to you," Halstead told the Post.