A bill introduced last week in the House by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J) (co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force), and in the Senate by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), would give companies that manufacture helmets for young athletes nine months to improve safety standards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) would then review whether the voluntary safety standards developed by the manufacturers were adequate to reduce the risk of brain injury to young athletes. If the voluntary standards are found to be inadequate, the CPSC would then have 30 days to set new mandatory standards.
According to the bill, sports are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury for Americans ages 15 to 24, and football is responsible for more concussions than any other sport.
The bill also states that nearly 20% of all high school football players sustain a brain injury in any given football season.
According to the CPSC, more than 920,000 athletes under the age of 18 were treated for football-related injuries in 2007.
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