Those Required to Wear A Hard Hat

The first recorded building project that required the use of hardhats occurred in 1933, when construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Chief engineer, Joe Strauss, wanted workers to be safe and required regular hard hats for all workers and those with a face shield to protect the many sand blasters.

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) produced a booklet in 2003 that outlines all personal protection equipment (PPE) standards for both employees and employers. In this publication, OSHA states that “employers must ensure that their employees wear head protection if any of the following apply:

• Objects might fall from above and strike them on the head;
• They might bump their heads against fixed objects, such as exposed pipes or beams; or
• There is a possibility of accidental head contact with electrical hazards."

The basic rule of thumb indicates that hard hats should be worn in all situations where there is a danger of objects falling from work being done above you. OSHA also strongly recommends that hardhats should be worn with the bill facing forward to achieve maximum protection. If you are a construction worker, carpenter, linemen, pipe fitter, plumber, electrician, timber or log worker, or welder, you should wear an approved hard hat while on the job. If you work in any function, even management, but frequent worksites with either moving or stationery objects that might prove dangerous, a hard hat is required.

Types of Hard Hats

There are many types of hard hats used in the work place today. Type 1 hats are designed to protect you from objects that might fall from above or into which you might collide. Type 2 hats protect you from both vertical and horizontal threats. The manufacture and protection standards for these general categories are published by both the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), giving you a trusted guide when you want to buy hard hats.

There are three basic categories of hardhats, the important distinction is their resistance to electrical shocks and jolts, as all provide basic falling object protection:

• Class A – provides protection up to 2,200 volts of electricity.
• Class B – gives you maximum electrical protection, up to 20,000 volts.
• Class C – protects you from objects like the prior two classes, but no measurable electrical protection.

There are now hardhats that include face/sun shields, radio connections, ear muffs, and mounted lights. As you might expect, your choices of “styles” is amazing. There are many hard hat logo designs, including NFL hard hats, NASCAR hardhats, cowboy hard hats, and even pink hardhats. All other basic colors are available from a number of OSHA- and ANSI-compliant manufacturers. Most have widely adjustable head bands to keep you comfortable as well as safe while you work.

OSHA and ANSI Recommended Hard Hats

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) has issued regulation 1910.135, which outlines what personal protective equipment (PPE) should encompass. Their recommendations follow those of ANSI (American National Standards Institute), which sets standards for a variety of items, including safety hard hats. OSHA has also published a “Personal Protective Equipment Training Guide,” which covers construction hard hats and other protective items (goggles, gloves, etc.).

An MSA Hard Hat, as an example, is a source for a wide variety of hard hats ANSI approved in many colors and designs, including cowboy hard hats. There are designs that have full brims, hats with sunshields, and female-oriented hard hats, MSA has head protection that fits both your work and your personality. Jackson Hard Hats also produce high tech and high “fashion” head protection for both men and women workers. Since ANSI updated their standards in 1997, most manufacturers make both type 1 and type 2 (protects against both vertical and horizontal object problems) hard hats per these recommendations. North Hard Hats is another respected manufacturer of quality head protection and offers many choices of styles and colors.

When you buy hard hats, look for any statements that ensure those you consider are “OSHA-compliant” and/or comply with current ANSI standards of manufacture and protection. Once you are satisfied your choices meet these recommendations, you can pick out the style and color that fits your requirements and preferences.

Brief History of Hard Hats

World famous author and professor, Peter Drucker, believes that equally famous writer Franz Kafka was the first civilian person to develop hard head protection while he was employed at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute in Bohemia around 1912. This may be the first recorded instance of a third party requiring this protection in construction areas. The E.D. Bullard Company, a mining equipment manufacturer in California, generally gets credit for producing the first U.S. labor head protection, producing hats, first in leather, then in steel, for civilians in America. Bullard hardhats became the best known in the construction industry.

The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, begun in 1933, is the first construction site wherein workers were required to wear hard hats. Around 1938, aluminum replaced steel in hard hats (except for workers dealing with electricity for obvious reasons), and by the mid 1940’s, fiberglass became the material of choice. Now, hardhats are usually made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), often with a foam inner liner made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) for comfort and added safety.

As industrial head protection has evolved from leather helmets to hardhats, creative manufacturers now offer custom hard hats with company logos, NFL hard hats to support your favorite team, and even pink hardhats for female construction workers. About 10 years ago, the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) issued new recommendations for construction hard hats, which, while not mandatory, outline the quality of hardhats and most manufacturers now comply with these standards.

Designer Hard Hats

Whether you want to promote your company with “fun” hard hats or are a construction, electrical, plumbing, or other professional working in conditions requiring OSHA – or ANSI – compliant head gear, you can find designer hard hats that will meet your demands. Working in Dallas? You can wear a cowboy hard hat for protection. Are you a NASCAR fan? You can buy hard hats with Dale, Jr., Tony Stewart, and other driver’s colors and numbers. Whether you’re a fan of the Patriots, Steelers, Jaguars, or another team, you can purchase NFL hard hats to show your colors and hard hat logo.

Basic plastic hard hats (which don’t provide real workplace protection) can be purchased for company public relations purposes. For instance, a recent project at a New England credit union involved the construction of an additional floor above the current one. The lobby had to remain open so the credit union offered plastic hard hats to its members transacting business as a way of making the apparent inconvenience lighthearted and fun. These were not construction hard hats but looked like the real thing and sported the company logo on the front.

Hard hats ANSI – compliant are made in all the colors of the rainbow and manufacturers like Bullard Hardhats, North Hard Hats, MSA Hard Hats, Jackson Hard Hats, and others give you a wide menu of choices of styles and protection levels to ensure you will look good on the job, while protecting your safety.