Football players wear helmets, basketball players don’t, yet U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated 25,515 head injuries from gridiron activity last year and 24,320 from court collisions.

More emphasis than usual is being placed on helmets at this time of year because of preparations for football season. We can be pretty certain that basketball for all its dangers is not about to come forth with headgear. However, neither of these activities measures up to the 69,476 head injuries reported from cycling. The recent Tour de France and a growing number of accidents involving cyclists emphasize the folly of those not wearing helmets.

Debate continues over how much such equipment helps and how much it might hinder when improperly fitted.

In the past few years, the American Society for Testing and Materials, has approved headgear standards for martial arts, short-track speed skating, horseback riding, bull riding and soccer – a total of 13 helmets since 2000. There already is accepted headgear for cycling, motorcycling, in-line skating, skiing, baseball and football. Some chide that there is a growing “helmetization” in the country. Derision or not, the trend can have positive results.

The trouble is, in the rush to create headgear, a number of manufacturers turn out products that don’t provide maximum protection. That is a major reason people, particularly parents, need to get the best advice and guidance possible; a bad-fitting helmet can lead to more damage than none at all.

One major concern, understandably, is among parents of youngsters who play soccer, which produced nearly 15,000 head injuries of various types the past year. There are bound to be head traumas from collisions with goalposts and other players, but the main fear is the “header.” Head use is increasing, and so, it seems, are head injuries. Yet how many youngsters do we see using helmets in soccer games here, or anywhere? They are not likely to adopt such protection as long as the “big boys” and “big girls” in college and professional ranks eschew it.

Baseball and softball players often wear helmets of various kinds and yet there were 22,671 head injuries recorded last year in those fields, only about 3,000 fewer than for football.

Experts are quick to inject the notion that helmets do only so much. In football, for example, helmets may prevent skull fractures but there is no way to prevent brains from being jolted and even shifted by contact.

As of now, there is no fool-proof protection against head trauma in any sports or activity. Still, there are precautions that can be taken to lessen the chances for fractures, concussions and worse. It is a field where medical and sports people need to confer more intensely and continue to seek better forms of protection.