Concerns that fixing a cam on your helmet might lessen its protective qualities in an impact have been laid-to-rest, to some extent, by an exhaustive new study carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).
The august body was commissioned by BBC Safety to investigate the potential effects that mounting a camera, such as a GoPro®, may have on the safety performance of helmets and their findings were that there weren't really any. In fact in a few cases they found the camera mounting appeared to actually absorb some of the impact before the force reached the helmet itself.
Concerns had been raised about cam safety following various incidents, the most high profile of which was Michael Schumacher's crash above Meribel two years ago when his helmet, which had a camera mounted on it, reportedly split in two when he hit his head on a rock.
The TRL study involved studying impacts on a total of 75 test climbing helmets (slightly different to ski helmets), each with a camera mounted on it. Different types of camera location on the helmet, different types of camera mount and different types of impact were all tested. The study's conclusion was that,
"Results indicated that all helmet-mounted camera configurations investigated may be mounted to all three helmet models, and at all three impact locations, without increasing the risks of head injury beyond current legislative performance requirements or published injury thresholds."
The study focused on impacts and found that in 40% of tests the camera became detached from the helmet upon impact. It did not directly focus on the issue of whether chemicals used in adhesives used in camera mounting could damage helmet structure integrity although camera fixed with adhesive were tested alongside those that were clamped or strapped on.
authors noted that having a cam on your helmet was just one of a number of factors that might cause a differing result in an impact, others including the variables of helmet fit, size, weight, the angle of impact and the energy of an object strike or fall can all affect the end result.
The full report can be found at: http://www.trl.co.uk/reports-publications/trl-reports/report/?reportid=7032