Protect from the top

PROTECTING OUR heads at work started to become popular in the late 1800s but did not really gain any notoriety until standards began in the early 1950s. Back in those days wearing head protection was seldom mandatory and most workers decided not to don the protective headgear that was available. Up until the early 1950s most head protection was moulded on formers but during that time thermoplastic injection moulding was introduced and the humble hard hat started to feature more on construction sites worldwide. The standards really depicted what the hard hat would protect against and more importantly what area of the hard hat was assessed and checked to ensure that it offered the wearer a level of protection. To this day this is very much the case although please remember that the standard should be treated as the minimum requirement not the maximum, fortunately not all hard hats are equal, and levels of protection can differ between them.

How do hard hats or safety helmets work?

Hard hats or safety helmets work in different ways to protect you during an impact. Firstly, the hard outer shell is designed to withstand a certain level of impact and give you some protection from penetrating objects according to the standard EN397 in the crown area only, the hard hat may give you protection in other areas but only the crown is physically tested to ensure it passes the standard EN397. Depending on what hard hat you have there is a second layer of protection which may be either a cradle or an EPS (expanded polystyrene) insert. The cradle system is designed to spread the impact load and reduce shock being transferred to the head and neck whilst the EPS insert is designed to decelerate the impact acting like a crumple zone and again reduce the shock transferred. Other additions include chinstraps which are highly recommended to make sure the hard hat stays on your head during an incident and therefore may reduce the risk of you losing the one thing that is protecting your most valuable asset. Hard hats that qualify to other standards are in use like EN12492 the mountaineering standard. This standard has been widely adopted for users that may work at height, but it is not an industrial standard and therefore may leave you open to some industrial risks that would not have been considered when this recreational standard was last revised. Always assess your risks before choosing your qualified head protection or consult an expert that understands the standards.

What should I buy? And why?

It has long been a belief of mine and health and safety officials that we do not spend enough money to protect our heads. I understand the issues around budgets and procurement but when you take the value over a 5-year lifetime of a safety helmet on average it’s a small price to pay. I think it’s the initial outlay that scares some companies but that is not justified when they are spending in some cases 4 – 5 times as much on footwear as opposed to head protection. If you were to purchase a £100 hard hat over the 5 years lifecycle this cost is approximately 38p per week. I would certainly be willing to pay that amount per week to give me a higher level of head protection. I can hear you saying now ‘They all pass the standard’ yes that is correct but remember I said earlier the standard is the minimum level of protection not the maximum.

What does my safety helmet or hard hat protect me against?

These possible lifesavers will certainly give you a level of protection against most linear impacts but of course will only reduce the risk but not eliminate it however our head protection is not evaluated for oblique impacts (angled) and therefore may not afford us protection against these types of incidents. Science and statistics have shown that when we fall, we may typically hit our head at an angle rather than straight, this type of impact can introduce a different injury into the equation known as a rotational injury. You might think of the human brain as a semi-firm organ. But in reality, it has a consistency more like a gel. Because the brain consists mostly of water, it is incompressible but sensitive to shear deformations. “Shear” refers to unaligned forces pushing the brain in two different directions. All of this means the brain is extremely sensitive to rotational forces. This possible type of injury is not yet addressed in any standard, but the risk may be reduced by perhaps purchasing a safety helmet or hard hat with a Mips system installed or another rotational protective device. Mips stands for multidirectional impact protection system and is specifically designed to mitigate the risk of rotational injuries when you receive an oblique impact. Mips has a mission to lead the world to safer helmets.

The facts

The average power consumption of a typical adult at rest per day is 100 watts with the brain consuming around 20% of this. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion neurons, and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion. Each neuron is connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. These neurons typically communicate with one another by means of long fibres called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific recipient cells. In the cerebral cortex, the commands in the neurons there represent coordinated movements – like pick up the cake or hit the ball. The cortex then connects to a sort of console in the spinal cord that overlays the motor neurons. This console lays out arm position in space, up-down, left-right. Each desired arm position then is read out as a collection of specific commands to each motor neuron and muscle.

Let us look after and protect this precious part of our body. 

Hard Hat Awareness Week

This year we celebrated the humble hard hat during hard hat awareness week in June 2024 as we have done for the previous four years. The week is designed to encourage users to wear and care for their hard hat and to understand head/brain injuries better. Please join with us on social media and everywhere else and perhaps set some time aside during the week next year to audit and understand this thing that helps keep you safe for your loved ones every day. 

Chris Tidy is director of Specialist Training and Consulting Company Ltd and owner/organiser of Hard Hat Awareness Week. For more information, visit https://hardhatawarenessweek.com