Snowboard Bindings Recall

Note: With ski and snowboard season rapidly approaching, I wanted to pull out of my files a consumer product recall from June from K2. A recall for bindings may not pack much punch when it is 80 degrees, but it is a good reminder when snow is coming.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: K2 "Auto" Series Snowboard Bindings, Model Year 2007

Units: About 2,500 pairs

Distributor: K2 Sports, of Seattle, Wash.

Hazard: The cable that links the toe strap to the binding could break, posing a fall hazard to snowboarders.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description and Models: This recall involves the 2007 model year K2 "Auto" snowboard bindings. They were sold in black or white. "K2" and "Auto" are printed on the toe strap.

Sold by: Snowboard, ski, and sporting goods retailers nationwide from August 2007 through May 2008 for about $230.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled bindings immediately and take them to the retailer where purchased or contact K2 Sports directly to arrange for free shipment and repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact K2 Sports at (800) 985-2191 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, email the company at autobindingupgrade@k2sports.com, or visit the company's Web site at www.k2snowboarding.com.

6,500 Children Injured Diving

At the summer Olympics or the neighborhood pool, diving is increasingly popular, but some 6,500 U.S. children are injured annually diving, researchers said.

Study co-author Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Children's Hospital Center for Injury Research and Policy said every year in this country, approximately 6,500 children are treated in emergency departments for a diving related injury -- on average that's an injury an hour in the United States, every hour of every day that most pools are open.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found children between the ages of 10 and 14 are the most likely to get hurt diving. Boys are taken to the hospital twice as often as girls.

It's not the high risk, high dives that are to blame, Smith said.

"More than 80 percent of the dive injuries were from a dive height of less than or equal to one meter," study co-author Lara McKenzie of Nationwide Children' Hospital said in a statement. "So, that is not the highest dive, that's not a platform dive, this is the lowest dive height available at the pool."

Cheerleading Most Dangerous Sport For Women

U.S. high school cheerleading accounted for 65 percent of all catastrophic sports injuries among high school females in the past 25 years, researchers said.

The annual report of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research said that figure was believed to be 55 percent but new data included in this year's survey indicate that the true number of cheerleading injuries appears to be higher.

Between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with 67 occurring in cheerleading. In comparison, gymnastics had nine similar injuries and track had seven.

Among college athletes, there have been 39 such injuries: 26 in cheerleading, followed by three in field hockey and two each in lacrosse and gymnastics.

The center's director, Frederick O. Mueller, said catastrophic injuries to female athletes have increased over the years.

"A major factor in this increase has been the change in cheerleading activity, which now involves gymnastic-type stunts," Mueller said in a statement. "If these cheerleading activities are not taught by a competent coach and keep increasing in difficulty, catastrophic injuries will continue to be a part of cheerleading."

The report is available online at: http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/AllSport.htm.

Chlorine-Resistant Bug Threatens Swimmers

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is focusing on ways to fight a chlorine-resistant parasite in U.S. pools and water parks.

Called Cryptosporidium, or crypto for short, the parasite is found in human and animal feces and is easily transmitted through water, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

When ingested, crypto can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headaches and low-grade fever for as long as two weeks.

Outbreaks have been increasing over the past two decades prompting the CDC to work with industry representatives and public health officials to develop a new set of water-safety guidelines.

Some water parks, like Seven Peaks in Provo, Utah, have installed ultraviolet systems that can kill crypto and other parasites.

Weekend Athletes At Risk For Heat Stroke

More and more, young adults are among those in emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses -- especially weekend warriors, a U.S. doctor says.

Dr. Paul Pepe of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas says

rising temperatures make it paramount to keep the old and the young cool and well-hydrated, but young adults, especially week-end warriors -- need to take precautions to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

"In the past, the typical people we saw were the ones who couldn't fend for themselves -- the very young and the very old," Pepe says in a statement. "Now, young men and women who work in super-cool office environments and spend the weekends playing outdoors are getting into trouble because their bodies haven't had a chance to adapt to the hot weather."

To avoid joining the parade in emergency rooms for hot weather-related illnesses, Pepe advises:

-- Wear lightweight, loose-fitting and light-colored clothing.

-- Stay in a well-ventilated area, even if working indoors.

-- Drink water. Avoid too much sugar and caffeine.

-- Avoid alcohol; a cool beverage might sound good but it only dehydrates and impairs a person's ability to recognize danger signs.

-- Use a buddy system to keep an eye on one another.

Canadian Kids Shunning Sports

For the 13-year period between 1992 to 2005, sports attracted fewer Canadian children, particularly those from large cities and families with lower incomes and educational levels.

According to a Statistics Canada study, in 1992, 57 percent of school children reported regularly taking part in an organized sport, while in 2005 only 51 percent did.

The favorite game of sport-oriented Canadian youth for both males and females was soccer, which had dislodged swimming from the number one spot.

The study, which looked deeper into sport participation trends among 2 million school-age Canadian children, linked participation rates with residence in a smaller town and higher family income and parental education.

Another study by Active Healthy Kids Canada blamed the decline of physical activities of Canadian children on excessive time spent in front of computers, television and video games.

Study: Golf Can Add Five Years To Your Life

Golf could add an extra five years to the life spans of regular players, Swedish researchers say.

The study, performed by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, contends that a close look at 500,000 golfers showed that there were many health benefits to playing the game, including a longer and healthier life, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

The golf study was published in the latest issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and defined a round of golf as lasting four or five hours while walking at a fast pace.

"People play golf into old age, and there are also positive social and psychological aspects to the game that can be of help," Anders Ahlbom, leader of the Swedish study, told the Telegraph, adding that the longest lifespan increases came among golfers with blue collar economic backgrounds as opposed to those with professional jobs.

Also, the newspaper said, those golfers with the lowest handicaps also had the lower death rates, and that overall golfers at any age were 47 percent less likely to die than their non-golfing, same-age counterparts.