5/19/2023 0 Comments Widelands helmet![]() So what is the specified standard for a wildland firefighter? Of course, wildland firefighters have been directly in the line of fire for potential head trauma since the dawn of firefighting due to our inability to control when a tree decides to fall on a person’s head, among other things. ![]() Traumatic Brain Injuries have become a focal point for helmet engineers in the last couple of decades surely due to the volume of injuries among active duty military and professional football players. Although it may appear to be relatively basic on the surface, the world of hardhats is quite complex. Since that turning point, specified helmet standards have been generated for just about anything you can think of: construction work, football, hockey, baseball, bicycles, military, mountaineering, snow sports, whitewater, bull riding-you get the idea.Īctivity-specific standards ensure that the helmet performs to the task at hand rather than lumping everyone in together under one hardhat. Somewhere between the first hardhat in 1919 and everyone wanting to wear hardhats even if they didn’t need one, came an act of Congress in 1970 aimed at protecting workers on the job. Hardhats have been made from a variety of materials throughout the years such as leather, steel, aluminum, fiberglass, and now more recently thermoplastics and high-density polyethylene. Bullard developed the first hardhat in 1919, which was originally called the “Hard Boiled Hat.” The original version was made of steamed canvas, glue and leather with suspension soon to follow. )įlashing forward to modern-day, it’s been 100 years since Edward W. There was a confluence of social factors that made hardhats cool that has not happened with hearing protection or respirators, she said.” (From the New York Times article, The Evolution of the Hardhat. Rosenberg said hardhats had become associated with masculinity and patriotism. At some point, the hardhat became a symbol of pride for manual labor workers everywhere. So much so in fact, that there have since been studies observing the phenomenon of workers wearing hardhats when they aren’t even required. ‘We shrieked with laughter when we tried them on as if they were carnival hats,’ according to one French soldier, but they cut head injuries from 70 percent to 22 percent.” ( )Ĭultural stigmas may have been present initially, but those were cast aside once people began to recognize the value of the helmet. “In 1915, armies hurriedly introduced helmets, widely known as ‘tin hats.’ The soldiers found the new helmets comical. After all, the brain is the body’s most valuable asset to protect.Įarly day wildland firefighter fellas looking dapper in what Bre likes to call their “Gentleman Hats.” But that doesn’t mean we should remain oblivious about what we’re jamming onto our head and why. Luckily, just as with seatbelts, most of us will never have to test the capacity of a helmet. It eventually becomes a habit that leaves you feeling slightly naked if you were to be without one. Slapping on a hardhat is akin to putting on your seatbelt. Hardhats, helmets, bump caps, lids, brain buckets, whatever you want to call them, we all pop one on our heads before wandering around out in the field, never really stopping to think much about what that helmet can withstand or which standards it’s supposed to meet. H E L M E T S History, Insights, Thoughts and Observations (Yes, as we explain in this issue, they are called helmets.) Our heads matter. This issue of Two More Chains is about helmets. Is what we wear the best there is? Is it the best we can do? Have we accepted this? Let’s look in the pudding for the proof. Wildland firefighters regularly face conditions that could result in head injuries-like getting hit by rocks and trees or rolling over in a UTV. Chances are you have heard of Traumatic Brain Injury, most likely in reference to professional football players or combat veterans. ![]()
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