|
 |
 | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||
| | You are in: Health | ||||||||||||||||||||
 | | Thursday, 10 January, 2002, 01:18 GMT Rollercoaster risk warning  Rollercoasters are getting bigger and better Amusement park rides may be the cause of unexplained head, neck and back injuries seen in accident and emergency department, doctors have warned. Some rides reach G-forces exceeding those experienced by space shuttle astronauts. The risk of injury is small, but US researchers warn that as the competition increases to build faster, more thrilling rides, the number of injuries and even deaths will rise - something they say should be remembered by casualty doctors assessing patients. Patients should also be warned of the potential dangers on theme park rides, they say. The research is published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Risks Doctors reviewed previous reports of amusement park injuries and fatalities published in the medical literature and data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), as well as literature on physics and physiologic effects of roller coasters. Looking at the CPSC data and taking into account the 900m amusement park rides visitors take in the US each year, the authors calculated that the risk of injury requiring medical attention was one in 124,000 rides.
They estimated the risk of sustaining an injury which needed hospital treatment was one in 15m rides, and the risk of being fatally injured was one in 150m rides. G-force During the past 10 years, there have been 15 reports in medical literature of life-threatening brain injuries caused by riding rollercoasters. Several of the authors of these reports have said giant roller coasters produce enough G-forces to cause brain injury. Potential head injuries include subdural haematoma, a serious injury characterised by blood under a membrane surrounding the brain. Rides could also cause other health problems including seizures and back injuries. The researchers of this latest study believe federal legislation passed in 1981, which exempted large, fixed-site amusement parks from reporting injuries or undergoing accident investigations by the CPSC, led to the actual number of injuries per year to be underestimated. Competition Dr Robert Braksiek, of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who led the study, said: "Although the risk of injury from amusement park rides today is low, our research uncovered a worrisome trend in the number and rate of amusement park injuries. "It is important for healthcare providers when evaluating patients with neurological symptoms to ask if they have been on any of these thrill rides." He added: "With fierce competition to build faster, more thrilling rides, we're concerned roller coaster G-forces will reach and exceed the body's threshold of tolerance, giving rise to a wave of amusement park injuries each year. "As these injuries occur it is important that physicians are vigilant in reporting these injuries to authorities to help determine whether these rides are unsafe." Mr John Firth, a consultant neurosurgeon who speaks on behalf of the head injury charity Headway, told BBC News Online he agreed with the US researchers. He said: "When an A&E department is near an amusement park, if someone comes in holding their neck, the first thing is 'have they been on a ride?'." But he said because people travelled long distances to go to such parks, all casualty doctors had to bear the possibility in mind. He added that sometimes in A&E, patients failed to tell doctors - or doctors failed to ask. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Health stories now:  Links to more Health stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Links to more Health stories |
 | | ^^ Back to top News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII|News Sources|Privacy  |
E-mail this story to a friend