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Every now and then, we have people asking us: “Isn’t paintball dangerous? It’s a game where people shoot paintballs at each other! It’s so dangerous!” Paintball is like any other sport, people get injured only when proper safety precautions are not taken, or when force majeure (acts of god) comes into play. In reality, Paintball is an extremely safe sport – it’s even safer than jogging. Believe it or not! Read on to find out! Firstly, in order to understand how safe Paintball is, one must know how risk potential in a sport is measured. The most practical method of assessing risk potential in a sport is to measure the number of injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures — i.e. the number of times a participant engages in the activity over the course of a year. While membership in the “Extreme Sports” category implies danger, Paintball is handicapped by a huge injury taboo — one that exists in the public mind, but not in the statistics. This taboo comes from the image of Paintball as a game of “people shooting at each other with guns”, yet similar games utilizing laser tag and water guns have existed for many years. The industry has long maintained that the rare (but highly publicized) eye injury almost always occurs in an unsupervised, unprotected, often illegal setting; and that Paintball is a very safe activity — a claim substantiated by the current research, as the sport reflected only 0.2 injuries per 1,000 exposures, the lowest injury rate of any Extreme Sport. Put another way, the average player will suffer a Paintball injury about once every 500 years. A comparison with other sports will yield surprising results. Boxing ranks first with 5.2 injuries per 1,000 exposures, followed by Tackle Football (3.8), Snowboarding (3.8), Ice Hockey (3.7), Alpine Skiing (3.0), Soccer (2.4), Softball (2.2) and Basketball (1.9). Other conventional sports like Volleyball (1.3) and Tennis (1.1) and even Running/Jogging (0.6) have a significantly higher injury rate than Paintball. In an interview conducted by Pbstar.com with Dr Listman, a Pediatrist who published a report on eye injuries in paintball, Dr Listman stated that, “Most of the more recent injuries are in people who were not wearing eye protection.” It appears that most (if not all) of the victims of Paintball eye injuries are due to the victim's failure to use equipment properly, whether it is an adult or child victim. It is unfair to condemn Paintball for the victim's failure to simply read the safety labels that are affixed on products. It is impossible to cause an eye injury from Paintball if a person is wearing proper goggle/eye protection and the marker is properly maintained (i.e., not shooting at a velocity higher than allowed).
It is absurd to
shift the blame for Paintball injuries to the industry and the
game. For example, if a hockey goalkeeper does not wear the
safety padding required, he could get struck in any part of the
body and sustain a serious injury. Yet, that is not hockey's
fault. But the reverse is true for Paintball! Double standards
are present, with people branding the game as inherently
dangerous! In Paintball, the object of the game is to propel a
Paintball in order to mark an intended target. The risks
involved are that if you don't wear proper eye protection when
playing, you could potentially suffer an eye injury. It really
demonstrates a lack of responsibility when people fail to use
proper precautions or take proper safety measures, get injured,
then blame the industry.
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Photos by Desmond/Third Eye Blind |
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