A hard hat is a hard hat, right? Cheaper the better and keep them forever. If it’s just to check off a bureaucratic box or look cool on your office shelf, that’s probably true. But, just as we have learned with other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE), it turns out there are a number of variants when it comes to hard hats, the differences can matter, and the likelihood that they will actually be worn increases linearly with the care in selection (we did the statistic regressions to be sure).
There are plenty of jobs in the world of public works and construction that don’t require a hard hat, and that’s fine. But the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) says, the “employer shall ensure that each affected employee wears a protective helmet when working in areas where there is a potential for injury to the head from falling objects.”
Further, for areas where there is the risk of exposure to electrical conductors, the employer shall ensure that a protective helmet designed to reduce electrical shock hazard is worn by each such affected employee when near exposed electrical conductors which could contact the head.
OSHA rather succinctly maps out their head protection requirements in both 29 CFR 1910 (General Industry) and 29 CFR 1926 (Construction). Head protection must comply with American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z89.1-2009, (ANSI) Z89.1-2003, or (ANSI) Z89.1-1997. For those of you that don’t have a set of the ANSI standards laying around, compliant head protection must have a label attached to the inside that indicates its type and class.
Let’s talk about that for a moment. There are two types, cleverly named Type I and Type II (aren’t you glad you learned Roman Numerals back in elementary school?). Type I shield our squishy brains from threats directly above – think about things like hammers, four foot levels, a cordless drill, or a brick falling off of a scaffold or from your colleague up on a ladder. Yes, it’s ironic that you could get bonked in the head while holding a ladder to ensure better safety for your co-worker replacing a light fixture – wear a hard hat. A Type II is designed to protect you from side blows – everyone that hasn’t walked their head into a low-hanging beam along the way go ahead and take a bow. Think about the concrete truck chute that falls out of locked position and swings your way while you are trying to fill test cylinders to go to the lab. Type II hard hats provide protection to the side, back, or top of your head.
Provided the hard hat stays on your head of course; we’ll get to that.
So, types are about blows to your head, but classes are about electric shock. Most of us conduct a lot of our work where there is not reasonable likelihood of electric shock, so Class C (for conductive) are fine. But what about the emergency call out that requires us to be around downed power lines and such? Well, that’s a trick question, because for most of you in public works, the answer is that you would contact the power company and place temporary traffic control to keep your crew members and the public away from any exposed conductors. See? You knew you shouldn’t be in there.
But you may be involved in some specialty work or you may be part of the municipal electric company and Class C is no longer for you. Class G (you guessed it, for general) provides some modest protection against low voltage conductors and offers dielectric protection up to 2,200 volts (phase to ground). Now, it should be obvious, but let’s go there anyway. The hard hat provides protection to your head only. You see that, right? If the exposed conductor misses your hat and comes down on your exposed wrist, that’s a zappo situation. Okay, moving on.
Class E (yep, electrical) is needed for potential exposure to higher voltage conductors, up to 20,000 volts (phase to ground). To be sure, if you are working in that environment, let not this be the only source of your education about PPE, because you need an entire other level of expertise than we can provide.
So, the type and class of your hard hat is fairly straightforward. Next, we consider fit, comfort, style, and accessories. The classic yellow hard hat you see below is the most common choice, but the wide brim (and even super-wide brim) version is popular with those that have to be in the full sun for long periods of time. There are even cowboy hat models, although we are a bit suspect about them. More recently, climbing style hard hats like shown on the right have gained some popularity. As long as they have a label showing the proper ANSI Type and Class for your application, you are good.
Chin strap or no chin strap? If your work demands frequent leaning forward or bending over, this is a given, just for your sanity. Regardless, a chin strap ensures that the glancing blow of a concrete chute doesn’t remove your hat before it’s done protecting you from the rest of what’s coming and when you take that tumble that throws your head towards something less squishy that your skull, that strap is going to be your friend. So, you decide, but the cool kids are wearing a chin strap, so they can remember why they were cool when they are older.
The available accessories range from the ridiculous to the truly handy. There are liners for winter warmth, sweat bands for the summer, neck drapes for sun protection, and all manner of pivoting safety glasses, safety shields, ear protection, and headlights. You’re tired of them not having their safety glasses? Make them pivot on their hard hat and they’ll always be there.
Many hard hats are available with slots for airflow and there’s even one we saw with a small solar panel and a fan. We know that employees are more likely to wear PPE when it is comfortable, lightweight, and professional looking, so if we are solution-oriented, all of these considerations should be considered to better ensure their proper and consistent use.
And what’s the deal with colors? OSHA doesn’t care what color your hard hat is. That said, some organizations use colors to better manage personnel on busier sites. If a situation develops, you expect the home turf folks (those actually doing the work) to probably know what to do and where to go. But visitors, engineers, planners, officials, and specialty trades may not, so there is some merit in color coding us all. White hard hats show dirt too easily so we put them on engineers and architects because, well, you know. In the world of public works, particularly in the right of way, orange or yellow hard hats are common. Sometimes, green indicates safety staff and red can mean emergency workers and firefighters. Grey or blue are often visitors, although blue is sometimes reserved for electricians. But unless your project or agency has such a system, you can wear whatever color you like.
Oh, and as Columbo would say, there’s just one more thing. Hard hats do not improve with age. Now a lot of us have our favorite stickers on ours from back when we were on the cool project, but at some point, you have to let it go. Hard hats are not a decoration; they are intended to protect your skull. As they get older and have more UV exposure, they are less effective at deflecting blows to the head. Generally, if you hard hat is more than five years old, it’s time to invest in a new one.
For most of us, a basic hard hat will do, but it does no good if it’s not on our head, so get in the habit of wearing it for those tasks where some head-knockin’ is on the menu. If you do a lot of real work, some accessories can make you more productive. If you are a specialty worker, particularly in the electrical trade, you need to upgrade from the basics.
You must be logged in to post a comment.