re: What do the hard hats protect?

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99% of the time my hard hat sits under the back seat of my pickup truck along with my yellow safety vest.

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I always keep these in my truck, too. You can put those on and go anywhere, no questions asked.

What's interesting is that only my commercial GCs require PPE. My residential GCs don't give a frick, and I find residential sites far more dangerous than commercial sites. Unprotected elevator shafts, people working in trenches with no bracing, roofers doing God knows what with no fall protection, masons throwing bricks with no hard hats, fabricators grinding with no guards while doing the safety squint, electricians leaving exposed live wires, painters running heaters with no ventilation, etc.

The only PPE I really hate are gloves. A few of my GCs require them to be worn, but you're always taking them off to do fine motor actions. I kind of get the hard hat and glasses. My hard hat has saved my noggin a few times.

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I cant remember the last time i saw 5 white dudes, without multiple felonies, on a construction site

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FIFY

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. I worked at the coker in Exxon for about 5 years. The drums are 141 foot tall. The bottom of the drum is on the 40 foot and the top is on the 141. I've spent plenty of time on both decks. But thankfully I never had to go to the top of the derricks, which is 100 foot above the 141. Barrell ladder climbing. No thanks. If we ever had crane work at the top of the derricks, we had to get permission from the BR airport. You can see the derricks of the cokers from the MRB

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We have an elevator to get to the top of our stack. It is just over 1200' tall and is the tallest free standing structure west of the Mississippi. Google Kennecott Smoke Stack.

I did not do work up there. Just went for a visit.

was welding inside of a barge years ago. someone started a fire inside of the hull. had to get out in a hurry. rammed my dome into a cross beam. if i had not had a hard hat on, would have been knocked out. might not have survived.


csb

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Is that so the hard hat makers can get people to buy new ones

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I think it’s because the plastic breaks down over time. The same is true of child car seats. My Hard Hat “expired” in 2012. I’m not a hard core construction guy. I’m a network engineer who occasionally has to visit sites.

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Companies from being sued for OSHA violations.

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Fined by NOVs (Notice of Violation).

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a hard hat has an expiration date located under the bill.

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Not the aluminum ones that we wore on the drilling rigs up into the 80s and 90s. No expiration date on metal. Speaking of which, I haven't been out on a drilling rig since 1994. Are aluminum hardhats still in use there? OSHA won't allow them on commercial construction projects due to their ability to conduct electricity. That usually wasn't an issue on the rigs.

Couldn’t tell you. I’ve never been on a rig. I’m a plant baw.

Carbon fiber looking ones for most construction sites. I would imagine rigs also. They very light.

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What do the hard hats protect?

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Uh..... your head.


Old guy i worked with probing pipeline back in the day with learnt the hard way why hard hats are important.

We're in Pierre Part probing for pipelines and it's been dry so the ground isn't quite as soft as you'd expect in that swampy area. Pipeline was deeper than normal so we were having to use a mother in law to jam the pole down.
I was probably a foot taller than the old guy and we were taking turns doing this, as you have to do it several times until you actually hit the pipe. SO when you miss, you pull the probe back up and do it again a few inches over until you hit the pipe. I had been doing it for a while and took a break so old man grabs the mother in law and gets started. After a few hits the probe goes down and he evidently raises the mother in law a bit too high on his next hit. He must of gone up just high enough to go above the top of the probe, so when he went to hammer it down the edge of the mother in law hit the top of the probe, so it obviously didn't go anywhere, but he thought it would. He accidentally let go of the mother in law since his hands were coming down with force but the mother in law did not come down. WHen he let go the mother in law tipped over towards him and hit him right on the top of the head. He was not wearing a hard hat b/c it kept getting in the way when your arms are overhead using the mother in law, and we were on Shell property and were required to have a hard hat on at all times. Split his head open and he was bleeding profusely immediately. Wasn't too bad of a cut, but any cut on the head will bleed a ton. We had to report the injury, old man with 25+ years with the company was fired.