Proof of what children always knew: anoraks are hazardous to your health
By Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor
As the favoured outer garment of trainspotters and computer geeks it was always going to be a laughing stock. But the allegations against the much maligned anorak have become more serious. Doctors have discovered what children have long known -- anoraks are bad for your health. Experts at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre at Birmingham City Hospital, who have carried out what is thought to be one of the first in-depth pieces of research on the health risks of anorak wearing, have discovered that wearing the hood up can be hazardous.
The main danger comes when the anorak wearer tries to cross the road and turns his or her head to see nothing but a wall of fur.
According to the results of tests carried out by ophthalmologists, vision range with the hood up is more than halved. This, they conclude, is a danger to the anorak wearer and other members of the public.
'Campaigns to reduce road traffic accidents have paid little attention to the way headgear could interfere with vision,' says a report of the research in the Journal Of The Royal Society Of Medicine. The researchers measured the binocular visual field of healthy volunteers while they were wearing four different styles of anorak.
'All four anoraks greatly reduced the horizontal and superior field of vision. The anorak producing the worst reduction resulted in a width of vision of 99¡ and only 15¡ of vision above eye level, versus 167¡ and 52¡ respectively without an anorak.'
And the report advised: 'Anorak wearers should turn their heads to look sideways before crossing the road.'
Professor Philip Murray, one of the researchers, added: 'When the volunteers had the hoods up, their vision was severely reduced. People do need to be more careful.'
Another danger of anorak wearing, not identified in the study but all too familiar to children, is the sport of targeting snowballs so that they hit the small area of face left exposed after the hood is zipped up.
Perhaps this is something the doctors could investigate in further research.
Thanks fd ... outlawing snowballs in the UK is next on the agenda! Who killed Kenny? LOL &;-)