Thursday, August 31, 2023
Why You Should Consider the Switch from Hard Hats to Helmets
Builder Magazine: Although hard hats have been used to protect workers’ heads in the industrial and construction industries for over 100 years, the product hasn’t seen a significant upgrade since the 1980s, states Scott Greenhaus, executive vice president at Structural Group, during an Associated General Contractors webinar on the topic.
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5 comments:
My initial reaction to this article is that companies need to balance using the most effective personal protective equipment and having PPE that it’s employees are actually willing to wear. It doesn’t matter that a full-body suit with a helmet and respirator will be the safest that people can be if it is impractical to wear or the workers don’t want to wear it. I think that it is critical that any new PPE is designed in a way for maximum comfort and ease of use so that people actually want to wear it. I have known some people who absolutely hate chin straps. If someone was required to wear a helmet with a chin strap it would be easy for them to just ‘forget’ to clip the strap or not wear the helmet entirely. Instead, a company could make helmets optional for workers who wanted them, but be very strict about hard hats so there was at least some protection.
This conversation is very hard to take a strong stance on, because there are really two views that I can see. The first view is that hardhats are inherently less safe than something like a rock climbing helmet because it lacks chin straps and does not provide as much protection lower around the head. The other view is that as long as it is rated for protection against falling objects, it should be personal preference about what type is used because the person should feel comfortable wearing it all day. What is interesting is that even though this is the first time I have seen this written as an actual article, I do see more and more people in theatres starting to wear helmet-style hats that are closer to (or even are) rock climbing helmets. I do think there is a severe lack of safety protocols in some theatres, but it is because every person has their own level of comfort and will not be happy if they are required to change the way the have done things.
I had no idea hard hats had not been upgraded, or seen a significant upgrade, since the 80’s. I understand that helmets are expensive, but I would think that the cost of paying for an employee's hospital bill, severance pay, and hiring a new employee due to a brain injury would outweigh the cost of helmets. I also wonder how the companies contracts are so watertight there is no way to sue them. By not paying for helmets the companies are also decreasing the pool of available work force each time someone gets a head injury. Aside from head injuries, they also provide more safety for other workers. If a hard hat were to fall off of someone's head in the air it could hit someone, and if it didn’t the person would have to come back down, put it back on, and return to the height, wasting time that the person could have spent working.
As the article and other comments have pointed out, the most effective usage of PPE is to make it comfortable so that everyone wears it. While there are many different ratings of helmets and hard hats, it seems like helmets provide better protection than hard hats. Since many injuries of the head don’t hit right on the centre, I think it seems reasonable to push for PPEs that aim to prevent various types of injuries. As we wait to see if OSHA is going to implement a helmet requirement, I think organisations should still push for helmets over hard hats just because it protects their employees much more. Also, how many organisations actually inspect and renew their hard hats on a regular basis? Although it is not said in this article, I believe hard hats are not as useful when they are damaged. I wonder if the School of Drama will also implement helmets soon.
When I was scrolling, this headline caught my eye. I just completed the required safety training for my college’s theater program, which included PPE training and fall/heights safety, two topics this article touches on heavily. It is always jarring to see a change come to something that is so cemented in the industries it is applicable to, such as hard hats. The theater world has been experiencing multiple changes like this over the past couple of decades including CNC machining, ear protection, respiratory protection, etc. Some of the comments in the interview really struck a chord with me. When asked why it has taken so long to implement helmets into construction, one of the first answers is increased cost. The fact that companies are really willing to sacrifice employee’s everyday safety on the job for increased revenue is mind-boggling. To add onto that, the interviewee also comments that the only sacrifice that the worker has to make for the increased protection of a helmet is dealing with a simple chin strap.
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