An Overland Park nonprofit may be responsible for saving the lives of countless young athletes if its new performance standards are enforced with future sports equipment.
NOCSAE, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, was founded in the late '60s in response to football deaths related to head injuries. It was the first to develop football helmet standards for manufacturers, which are still implemented by governing bodies today.
Following a meeting in Arizona last week and after years of research, NOCSAE announced what it hopes will soon become two new groundbreaking performance standards: one in regards to football helmets and the other being the first chest protector standard to prevent sudden cardiac arrest.
The new football helmet standard
“[The new standard] says that in order to be certified as meeting the standard, it has to not only do what it's always done but in addition it has to keep linear [front to back blows to the head] accelerations down below a certain level when they're impacted at various locations around the helmet,” said NOCSAE Executive Director Mike Oliver.
The new football helmet performance standards also put limits on the maximum rotational forces that are involved in many football-related concussions.
"This is an extraordinary step forward in addressing concussion risks," said Dr. Robert Cantu in a press release. He is the NOCSAE Vice President, Boston University School of Medicine Clinical Professor, Department of Neurosurgery and Co-Founder and Medical Director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
"Since rotational accelerations are thought by the majority of neuroscientists to be more injurious to the brain than linear accelerations, it's a significant advancement for NOCSAE to move to final status a rotational acceleration threshold in addition to their already existent linear acceleration threshold in their football helmet standard,” he said.
Manufacturers will be required to meet the new football helmet performance standard by June 2018.
The first chest protector standard for sudden cardiac arrest
NOCSAE has also spent considerable time developing the first chest protector standard to prevent commotio cordis, or sudden cardiac arrest.
"The average age of the person that dies from this is about 14,” said Oliver. “If it meets our standard, it will reduce the likelihood of a commotio cordis event by about 80 percent."
NOCSAE looked further into the safety of chest protectors used by baseball catchers and lacrosse goalies after Oliver spent time in Long Island a few years ago.
Oliver was visiting a family who had just lost their son to sudden cardiac arrest while playing lacrosse.
“He had a shot that hit him in the chest, he took a couple steps, fell over and died,” said Oliver.
It wasn’t long after NOCSAE had its researchers scientifically test chest protectors with its combined new knowledge on the cause of commotio cordis in athletes struck in the chest while playing.
According to its research, it doesn’t take a blazing fastball to kill someone.
"We also started seeing that it didn't have to be a hard hit. In fact there were some cases where a mom or dad was out in the backyard playing catch with their 8-year-old son and kind of unhanded-tossed the ball, hit him in the chest, he died."
The nonprofit also soon found there is no current chest protector on the market that protects athletes from such a tragic blow.
"It must protect the heart in impacts we know cause this kind of an event,” said Oliver regarding the new standard.
As to how manufacturers satisfy the standard – that’s up to them.
"Is it new materials? Is it a new design? Is it more padding? Less padding? Is it flex - we don't care how they do it. We just tell them this is what it has to do when it's tested,” said Oliver.
Laura Aronson lost her daughter, Emma, a Lee’s Summit High School basketball player, to sudden cardiac arrest two and a half years ago. She’s thrilled to learn a local entity is being proactive in preventing such deaths.
"For us and for her and for so many other kids that pass away from sudden cardiac arrest, there's no warning signs,” said Aronson.
According to St. Luke’s Athletic Heart Clinic, roughly 100 athletes die per year from sudden cardiac arrest. St. Luke’s also continues to work with Aronson in honor of Emma, providing low-cost heart screenings for local athletes.
"It's really for fun, so it shouldn't end in tragedy. So if there are measures we can take I applaud everybody that tries to do anything,” said Aronson.
The new chest protector performance standard for commotio cordis will go into effect January 2018.
Both new standards are recommendations for manufacturers. It takes governing bodies to adopt the standards in order to enforce them. Oliver said that U.S. Lacrosse is the first to stand behind the new measures.
Visit EmmaLives.org to learn more about heart screenings in the area.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
