HARD HAT DESIGN - RECOMMENDED BASIS FOR HEAD PROTECTION OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS

An eye injury can put you out of work for days or weeks, but a head injury can put you out of work permanently, and can even be terminal. Think about this seriously for a minute. Your brain is inside your head and it controls everything your body does.

Some worker injuries that have resulted from not wearing a hardhat include permanently blurred vision, memory loss, and lack of coordination. Your neck and spine are connected to your head and an injury to these vital structures can leave you paralyzed for life.

OSHA 1910.135 requires that anytime there is the chance of falling overhead objects, tight construction areas where workers could bump their heads on surrounding objects, or the possibility that a worker’s head could accidentally come in contact with EHs, an employer must make sure that workers wear head protection.

A hardhat’s design includes a suspension harness that provides impact protection and ventilation.

That criteria covers just about any worksite condition.

Hardhats have a hard outer shell and a shock-absorbing lining with a headband and straps that suspend the shell from 1 to 1¼ inches away from your head. The basic design provides ventilation during normal wear and shock absorption in the event of an impact.

When you wear a hardhat, the force of a falling object is transmitted and distributed, reducing the impact by approximately 75%. The force of a falling object can be calculated from the weight of the object and the distance that it falls.

For example, a metal washer falling about 30 feet will generate a force of 6½ pounds on impact! Now imagine that you are pulling wire in a new construction house and someone working on the trusses two stories above you drops his hammer and it hits your hardhat.

This kind of accident has happened more than once, resulting in nothing more than a startled electrician with a few choice words for the carpenter above him. However, without your hardhat to dissipate and absorb that kind of shock, you could end up with a fractured skull or an injury that is so severe it kills you.