Page 92 - Occupational Health & Safety, July/August 2019

HEAD PROTECTION
Hard Hat Saves Lives for 100 Years
BY STACEY SIMMONS
Millions of workers wear hard hats every day on their job sites. Have you ever wondered where the hard hat comes from? It so happens that the hard hat is
celebrating 100 years this year. Today, the hard hat is one of the most recognized safety products worn by workers worldwide.
We can trace the heritage of the hard hat to the E.D. Bullard Company, which was founded in 1898. The founder’s son, Edward W. Bullard, designed the original Hard Boiled Hat in 1919 from the dough- boy army helmet he wore while serving in World War I. The Hard Boiled Hat design was to protect miners from falling debris. By the 1930s, the hard hat became required safety gear for all workers who were constructing the Golden Gate Bridge. The use of the hard hat to protect workers from falling riv- ets saved many lives during the construction of the bridge, and this project transformed the original Hard Boiled Hat into a durable industrial hard hat. The Golden Gate Bridge project became America’s first designated Hard Hat Area, and hard hats were now becoming more and more visible on work sites across America.
It wasn’t until the 1970s, when OSHA was formed, that wearing a hard hat on work sites became man- datory. To put this in perspective, in 1970 there were 15,000 worker deaths; in 2016 there were approxi- mately 5,200 deaths, showing how effective and nec- essary head protection is on the job.
The original Hard Boiled Hat was manufactured out of steamed canvas, glue, a leather brim, and black paint. Over the years, mainly because of advances in materials such as fiberglass, the hard hat has evolved considerably. Today, thermoplastics is the standard material for hard hat construction because it’s easy to mold and shape with applied heat. More than 6 mil- lion hard hats are sold to workers each year.
The OSHA construction standard for head pro- tection states: “Employees working in areas where there is a possible danger of head injury from im- pact, or from falling or flying objects, or from elec- trical shock and burns, shall be protected by pro- tective helmets.” Hard hats are designed to meet or exceed the requirements of ANSI/ISEA Z89.1 stan- dard. With all of the knowledge we have about head injuries, there’s no excuse why workers on job sites should not be wearing head protection.
86 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY/AUGUST 2019
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