Industry Move to Helmets

If you are out in the workplace, especially the construction sector, you are likely seeing a trend of helmets on job sites. This has long been the case in Europe and is really catching on here in the USA.

The hard hat was invented here in the USA in 1919 by E.D. Bullard and has been a mainstay ever since. Hard hats come in many styles and are made from many different materials, but they have tended to fall off when workers lean over or bump into something. We tried chin straps, which work but are not very comfortable.

I have worked in and around the wind energy industry since the early 2000s. We used climbing helmets from Europe since they offered better protection and eliminated the chance of falling off when looking down or bumping something. This seemed to have caught on and manufacturers began making climbing style helmets for the construction sector. Soon, large, international general contractors began wearing these helmets and requiring their subcontractors to do so in kind. As a result, we are seeing helmets everywhere now.

A hard hat has always been a very personal item and for many workers, a badge of honor. They have preferences on which style they like, and they take that hat with them from place to place. As they go, they generally collect stickers and cover the hat in those stickers, giving them credibility and status. Asking a worker to give up this hard hat is not easy, but the move to helmets is being accepted much better than I would have assumed.

Helmets are far more expensive than hard hats and are also more comfortable. A standard hard hat costs anywhere from $10-30 whereas the average helmet is around $100. There are less expensive options and options that are pricier. Either way, the change is coming, and it is here to stay.

People ask what drove this change. There are likely many factors that are driving this, but the biggest that we see is general contractors making this change a requirement on their projects. There have been many documented cases of hard hats falling off workers’ heads and impacting a worker below, and cases of hard hats coming off during a fall, and the worker impacting another object, sustaining a head injury. These have been strong drivers for chin straps, but helmets offer a superior solution to adding a chin strap to a traditional hard hat. In addition, helmets generally provide better protection from front, back, side or top impact from objects.

Consider these factors as you look forward and expect that a move to helmets is coming. As mentioned, there are many choices, so select something that your employees like to wear.