Minnesota Paintball League - Promoting Safety in MN  HOME     GOGGLE SAFETY     PAINTGUN SAFETY     PLAYING SAFELY     INSURANCE     STATISTICS     PAINTBALLS     NEWS     CONTACT

Paintball Good Safety Record

 

NEISS - The National Injury Information Clearinghouse of
the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington D. C.

has provided injury estimates through use of the National Electronic Injury
Surveillance System.

In the number of estimated injuries per 1,000 participants,
paintball had the LEAST NUMBER OF INJURIES of all the listed sports.
The number of injuries for paintball is less by far than bowling, tennis, archery,
basketball, and many other sports.

The government report warns: "CAUTION.  NEISS data and estimates
are based on injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms that patients say are
related to products. Therefore it is incorrect, when using NEISS data, to say the
injuries were caused by the product." That means that the paintball total injuries include all types of injuries, and would include sprained ankles, cuts, heat exhaustion, etc., on and off the playing field, at organized play sites or otherwise,
as well as any eye injuries. The estimated figures are calculated using data from
a sample of hospitals in the U. S. and its territories. (APG NOV. 2003)


Sports Injuries Report

US SPORT

Yearly injuries per 1000 Participants

Boxing 5.2
Football-Tackle 3.8
Snowboarding 3.8
Ice Hockey 3.7
Snow Skiing 3.0
Soccer 2.4
Softball 2.2
Basketball 1.9
Football-Touch 1.9
Surfing 1.8
Cheerleading 1.7
Water Skiing 1.6
Racquetball 1.5
Martial Arts 1.5
Wresting 1.4
Baseball 1.4
Volleyball 1.3
Mountain Biking 1.2
Tennis 1.1
Ice Skating 1.1
Horseback Riding 1.0
Skateboarding 0.8
Hunting 0.8
Bicycling-BMX 0.8
Running 0.6
Paintball 0.2

SOURCE: AMERICAN SPORTS DATE, INC.
 
Other injuries
LOCATION Yearly injuries per 1000 Persons
Home 93
Work Place 66
Moving Vehicles 22
Street 19

 

While the news media, the public and some governemnt officals maintain the perception of paintball as "dangerous" those of us who actually play the sport know that when you follow some basic safety rules the sport is very safe. The actuall data suports the fact that paintball is safe.
1. Keep your goggles on
2. Use a barrel plug or barrel sock when ever you are not on the field.
 

SGMA Extract 2003

While membership in the Extreme Sports category implies a whiff of danger, only paintball is handicapped by a huge injury taboo, one that exists in the public mind, but not in the statistics. 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.

 

Statistics

 

Disclaimer