Carey Parks wrote: > Thanks for passing that along Nick. The sponson part is interesting, but > the bit about Rick Homeostasis Theory was especially interesting. It > explains why the "religious" debates occur here from time to time > regarding pfd use, loading and other safety issues, and why nobody ever > "wins." Seems that if there's not enough risk, we'll manufacture some! > Make kayaks/kayaking safer and we'll push the envelope back to the same > level of risk we enjoy. Risk homeostasis is fascinating stuff. (I run into it as a regulatory analysts in my "day" job, and in traffic safety work.) It explains whay adding safety equipment to for example hockey players changes the nature of the injuries, but does not have much overall effect. For example adding face masks successfully reduces minor eye and face injuries, and dental damage. On the other hand IIRC it is believed to have resulted in more serious neck and other upper body injuries to higher level players who play hard and physically because it increases the players' feeling of invincibility. Recently applied as a hypothesis to a battle at school about pea gravel under play structures (vs. sand). If kids play to a certain level of thrill, then making it safer to land may very well prompt them to feel safer doing more adventurous moves. So fewer bumps and bruises, but an occaisional broken arm from a bigger fall. Kids are perfet for risk homeostasis because they respond entirely by instinct. GaryJ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 22 2004 - 08:19:08 PDT
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