Variability and Sampling Inspection in the NOCSAE Standards for Football Helmets

Abstract

Because of increasing numbers of serious sports-related injuries at all levels of participation, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) was formed. Among their activities aimed at improving the safety of sports participation was the development of standards for impact resistance in both new and refinished football helmets. These standards include not only recommendations as to safe levels of resistance to impact but recommendations as to the number of helmets to be tested from each group of helmets undergoing a refinishing process.

In this study the various sources of variability in the testing procedure are examined. These sources include helmet-to-helmet variability, testing variability, and basic measurement error. A careful examination of this variability in the context of the NOCSAE-recommended testing procedures for recertifying helmets reveals an inadequacy in the NOCSAE standard, in that the probability of returning unsafe helmets to the playing field is unacceptably high.