Grainger Industrial Supply: Every day at jobsites around the globe, construction workers walk past a “Hard Hat Required” placard—a reminder to don their protective headgear before proceeding into areas where falling debris, low beams or other perils could be lurking around any corner. OSHA rule (29 C.F.R. 1926.100) states that employers must provide head protection equipment (and at no charge to the worker) that meets or exceeds the industry consensus standard ANSI Z89.1 issued 2009.
10 comments:
I find it very strange when people use bike helmets or climbing helmets instead of a hard hat for one main reason: they have holes in them! I really do not think they are an acceptable alternative to protecting from falling debris. I think going with helmets designed specifically for construction is a much safer bet. These new helmets are coming with so much adjustability I really do not see a reason to buy a hard had for personal use any more. I could still see companies justifying it on a large scale because of the price and the fact that normal labor might not need all of the extra features, but for someone who is working in the industry a lot in many different capacities, I think getting a helmet like this is a pretty good idea. There is also the issue of novelty hard hats like the cowboy hats that have become popular recently… Maybe it’s just me but I really think those are just ridiculous.
As someone with a very small head, these new hard hats with safety straps sound great! I also love that it is possible for me to get all my PPE in one place with the face shield and ear protection. While our regular hard hats are fine, I think having all the possible adjustments and inclusion of all protective equipment is convenient. Plus, I am pretty sure our hats have never been washed so we might as well get to replacing them. I have to say, unlike Cooper, I personally really like the cowboy hats. I think they are funny and they are also used for booth chairs in my social org. I do understand though, that they may not be as safe as the average hard hat and safety is not a laughing matter. That said, I think a production manager who is mostly overseeing the safety of others can afford to look stylish every once in awhile.
I really appreciate the evolution in hard hat design we are beginning to see. I decided to upgrade my hard hat game over winter break, buying a Petzl Vertex Vent helmet with the same ANSI Z89.1 rating as OSHA requires of any other hard hat on a jobsite. In addition to more adjustability, it also has some adjustable vent holes and a chin strap. I have never felt more comfortable on a load-in or strike! I can wear my helmet for hours without discomfort, something I could never do with a typical hard hat. Additionally, I like that I can wear my safety helmet at height, as the chin strap prevents it from falling off. On many load ins, folks will take their hard hats off when they get in the lift. However, especially in the Chosky, it is very possible for people to working at higher points in the space, like the loading rail, tension grid, or steel grid. As such, taking your hard hat off to get in a lift is well-meaning at best, but dangerous at worst. The rise of safety helmets in the construction industry is definitely a beneficial movement.
This is an important article. I have personally noticed the switch from traditional hard hats to these other mentioned hard hats. They do appear to be much better and for me this is mainly there features as they not only seem to be more comfortable, they also allow for face shields and ear muffs to be attached as well. I am very pro the ear muffs as I hate wearing in ear hearing protection and can’t wear ear muffs and a hard hat unless I were to get one of these. One other feature I hadn’t considered was that fact of side head protection. This can be useful. Another note about safety is that lack of rim around the hat. I find that this rim actually blocks my full field of vision, specifically my peripheral vision. Ninety present of the time I hit my head, it tends to be because I didn’t see something above me that I knew was there, I thought it was further behind me or in some other location in relation to me. I would have seen it if there wasn’t that rim there. The other ten percent comes from me not wanting to look up because it feels like the hard hat will fall off even though I know it won’t and so I instead stand up knowing something might be there and just wait for my hardhat to let me know. These other hard hats eliminate those problems and can be used quite literally just for the reason we wear them, things dropping above us. I am definitely in favor of this switch and one day soon, I hope to see the switch be the standard.
I found this article very interesting as I have always worn a helmet over a hardhat. I started doing this because I used to rock climb a bunch and I always wore a helmet while doing this. In my head, this helmet served the same purpose as a hardhat does on a construction site. When rock climbing, I wear a helmet for two reasons. One, when outdoor rock climbing, I wear a helmet in order to protect my head for falling debris and rocks that my rope or other people may break loose. Second, I wear a helmet to protect my head in case of a fall. This is exactly the same as a construction site. You need to be protected from stuff falling from overhead and from possible falls. I think we can easily apply this to theater as it also has similar uses as a construction site, especially during load ins and load outs.
This sounds great, as I see a few at CMU already owning their own personal helmets. Likewise I see the hardhats on the rack outside the scenic shop and some look like the ones my grandfather wore in his heyday on the construction site. It seems bizarre that there has not been more changes to the design over such a long period of time. That having been said, I hate wearing hard hats, nothing seems worse then having the added feature of something scratchy under your chin for 4 hours, for me by far the worst part of playing football was the uncomfortable feeling of the chinstrap, and this seems just as annoying. This is granted that wearing hard hats daily is not my intended path in life, but for the time being I am kinda ok that they do no under the chin. On the other hand it seems like a true win win for everyone.
I find it a bit weird that this article doesn’t mention hardhats with chin straps. I agree that it is way too easy for standard hard hats to fall off, but I’m curious what the other argument for switching head protection is other than the chin strap. I’m sure for all of these types of protective headwear someone has put it on a dummy with some sensors on it and seen how the amount of force seen by the dummy after different types of impacts compares. Is the material used for helmets more typically associated with sports actually better for the types of impacts one is most likely to see when doing construction. And if so, why has the hardhat been the standard all this time? Force of habit? Production cost? It’ll be interesting to see if hardhats become a thing of the past, or if they just change to become more effective, but keep the same core design.
I agree with Sebastian when he says that some hard hats that I interact with on a daily basis look like my father could have worn it when he was in college. This concerns me because, like everything, thing wear out and become less effective and I believe this rule applies to hard hats as well. While I understand the effectiveness of the hardhat, personally, I do not care if people choose to wear a safety helmet like they do for rock climbing. All helmets have a similar goal, and that is to protect the head if something were to fall and hit you. I do agree that hardhats have a tendency to fall off, especially if you are like me and have a big head, but a chin strap is incredibly uncomfortable to wear for an eight-hour load in or load out. Personally, I see myself buying my own safety helmet in the future because of the added security I can choose to wear with the chin strap, and when I do not feel that I need it, I can just buckle the strap over the back of the helmet.
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