The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
If you're one of the 4.5 million Canadians skating onto the hockey rink this fall, you may want to change your game plan to prevent a trip to emergency. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is urging all hockey players to wear full-face visors as the best way of preventing facial and eye injuries. Players under age 16 already have regulations requiring visors, but adult hockey players Ð from old-timer leagues to the National Hockey League Ð do not. To date, there have been 27 career-ending eye injuries in the NHL. The CMA has asked both the NHL and Hockey Canada to consider mandatory full-visors. Between 1972 and 1997, there were 1,860 facial and eye injuries, 298 of which resulted in partial or full blindness. A 2003 study of Junior A players found that those who didn't wear a visor suffered head and facial injuries nearly seven times more often than players who wore visors. Another study of Canadian university hockey players shows the risk of a facial or dental injury is nearly ten times greater for players wearing half-face shields instead of full-face ones. They are also more at risk for concussion. The CMA's position is supported by the NHL Physicians Society, the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine, the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, the Canadian Dental Association and others. Full-face visors are the norm for amateur players up to about age 16 and college athletes; junior hockey leagues require half-visors; and though the NHL has no rules, more than a quarter of players use half-visors Ð one in seven wear full-visors. Since 1979, when face protection became mandatory for minor hockey players in Hockey Canada, the number of eye injuries has plummeted. In 1974/75 there were 258 hockey-related eye injuries and 43 blinded eyes, while in 1999/2000 there were 11 injuries and one blinded eye.
