Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hard Hats As A Safety Precaution

By Debra Cooley


In any job site, it is always important to have all types of precautions, such as wearing hard hats. It is a kind of helmet that are used to safeguard you from injuries resulting from falling debris, objects, electric shocks, impact from other objects and electric shocks. In these hazardous environments, the safety of human life is the biggest concern there is.

Construction sites are one of the places that are required to take great precautions when it comes to safety. If any object falls or dropped from a very high elevation, anything below it will receive a fatal blow, especially if it hits someone on the head. This can result in serious medical conditions and other disabilities.

Only one of these can make you a handicap for your whole life. This is the reason that these hard boiled helmets should be able to protect your head especially the delicate parts like the mouth, brain, eyes, nose and ears. Not just the helmet, equipments like safety gears, protective clothing, steel toe boots and eye goggles can offer maximum protection.

These helmets are made to resist puncture from objects and to absorb the shocks from a blow. Most of them are also resistant to electricity and water and they should not easily get burned and must be properly ventilated for the comfort of the wearer. In the past they were made mostly of aluminum metal and fiberglass though the now they are mostly made of plastic which are very firm, durable, and light.

They are labeled into three different industrial classes. The most commonly used among them is the class A because it provides good impact absorption, but limited voltage protection. They are usually used when constructing buildings, shipbuilding, lumbering, manufacturing and mining. However, the best option when working with electricity are the class B.

Aside from protection from falling objects, the employees can also be protected against high voltage shocks and burns. However, class C are designed more for comfort and they are light weight, but offers only limited safety. They can protect workers from bumping against fixed objects, but not from falling materials or electric shocks.

They can also be fitted with other accessories such as ear protectors, visors, flashlight or headlamps, insulation pads and even mirrors. Chinstraps and sweatbands are required by contractors to prevent the helmet from slipping off, which is potentially hazardous to those below them. Most laborers working on road maintenance have fluorescent strips or reflectors on their hats for added safety when working on the highways.

They can still be used for five years if they are carefully cleaned before replacing them. They come in various colors, which indicates the roles of the people who wear them though the colors used will depend from one company to another. For example, the white hats are worn by engineers, managers, or supervisors while the workers use the yellow ones.

The blue ones may be used by the technical advisers, and the green is for the safety and medical staff and the visitors and new employees may also have a different color so that they will be easy to identify. Cleaning can have an effect on their longevity. It is for the good of the employees that the hard hats should be worn always anywhere in the site.




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