The high school football accounts for 47% of all reported sports concussions with 33% said to occur during the practice. It is for these reasons that the culture of wearing football gear and equipment has picked up across the high school teams. An issue that really has to be looked into though is hygiene of this equipment. This is a matter of concern as many high schools and sports teams are known to hand down football equipment such as football shoulder pads from year to year to players, and the reason attributed to the cost of this equipment. Many people do not realize the dangers that come with this hand-down culture, however. While we may say the managers clean the equipment, the question is, to what extent?
They harbor a high level of bacteria
While a football helmet is basically designed to protect a player, the dangers that result from not cleaning the equipment properly are often overlooked. The warm, wet and confined environment that the helmet provides is conducive for the growth and multiplication of bacteria. This is health threatening. It means that a player can transfer the same sort of bacteria to the next player such as lice, Staphylococcus aureus as well as other bacteria. It is therefore advised that when you buy football equipment, you maintain them through proper cleaning as they are sensitive.
Football pads
The kind of bacteria that the football pants on sale can harbor, once overly used and unclean, can be potentially dangerous, especially when in contact with the skin. The fact that football is a contact sport makes it common for the footballers to get cuts and abrasions. These make a good point of entry for bacteria into the body.
When football pads are shared, the risk of transferring one harmful bacterium from one player to the next becomes painfully high. You can clean the football shoulder pads by using a disinfectant to clean the plastic part; cleaning the pads however can be quite a task.
Specialists to clean
It is possible to clean and maintain the football equipment by yourself. However, there are those hard to reach areas or the kind of materials that need specialized cleaning to be able to get clean. There are sports depot online specialists that specialize in selling and cleaning of the football gear and will avail the appropriate cleaning equipment to get the gears into a safe, healthy state to be used by other players too, especially for the helmet and the football pads. By cleaning them thoroughly, the risk of passing infection from one player to another becomes almost impossible.
Handing down sporting gear from one player to the next can be significantly detrimental to their health. This is because all sorts of infections, including bacteria and fungi can be passed down. This is especially for the football shoulder pads and helmets as these offer warm, wet and conducive environment for multiplication of organisms. Therefore, maintaining the hygiene is very important, especially where you are planning on passing them down.