Each meeting at the American Society of Concrete Contractors Annual Conference (or any ASCC event for that matter) starts with a safety moment—anyone is invited to share something safety related, from near misses to new products. A hot safety topic at ASCC last week was the new construction helmets that are now being seen on jobsites. We were told that some of the more progressive GCs (such as Skanska, Clark, Balfour Beatty)are now requiring these helmets on their jobsites rather than old fashioned hard hats.
Contractors told stories where traditional hard hats fell off just when they were needed most. A worker falls a short distance and the hard hat with no chin strap falls off resulting in a head injury. The new construction helmets look more like a bike helmet or a rock climbing helmet and include a secure chin strap. One contractor who is now providing these to his workers said that he vastly prefers this style, since they are lighter and cooler, with built-in adjustable ventilation. Most also have slots for mounting hearing protection, visors, full face shields, or a head lamp.
Sure these new hard hats cost more than the cheap ones, averaging $115 each versus $15, but your workers are wearing $200 boots and carrying $700 tablet computers. One avoided head injury will pay for all of the helmets you can buy. In some cases, however, workers have not been allowed to use these helmets since not all have been certified yet to meet ANSI Z89.1
Last summer, I was told by contractors that buying more expensive safety glasses for their workers has paid off since they then took better care of them and wore the glasses all the time. I suspect the helmets will be the same. It's like I always say about bike helmets, if you think you don't need to wear one then you don't have anything to lose.