Harry Pollard wrote: > Chris, > The US Consumers Reports is excellent.
You're just not critical enough, Harry. I have just skimmed thru their website now, and found a significant mistake within a few minutes: In their article[1] on bike helmets: > The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) > estimates that helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. It is known among experts that this famous 85% figure is bollocks. It is based on one small and old unscientific study of 1989, and as world-renowned expert John Franklin pointed out[2], this study's methodology is so crappy that with it, you can "prove" that wearing a cycling helmet also reduces the risk of injury to __other parts of the body__ by 72%. (other parts than your head!) Serious studies found a reduction of around 25%, not 85%. If Consumer Reports would have any clue, they wouldn't have parroted the 85% figure. Their subsequent sentence about the 90% also shows that they have no idea of statistics anyway. Btw, their webmaster doesn't "get it" either: you cannot even follow their chapter links without activating javascript. Not consumer-friendly at all! Oh well, Consumer Reports should stick to washing-machines... Chris References: [1] http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=159455&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=21135&bmUID=1027036499568 [2] http://www.lesberries.co.uk/cycling/helm_summ.htm
