How and why a new safety standard has been developed for youth football helmets

Now that the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment has data to support the difference in head and neck injury risks for youth versus adult tackle football players, one athletic equipment safety standard nonprofit has released a first-ever youth football helmet standard .

“An awful lot went into the standard,” Dr. Robert Cantu, NOCSAE vice president and chair of the organization’s scientific advisory committee, said. “It is something that's evolved over the last 10 years. ... Youth are not small adults. They have particular needs. They have disproportionately large heads at an early age, and they have very weak necks.”

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That was the starting point for NOCSAE to invest half a mil