In many industrial working environments, for example mining, power, construction or forestry, the risk of head injury to workers is constantly present. This is why the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 require employers to provide safety helmets to their employees and to ensure that hard hats are worn when there is a risk of head injury. These hard hats are specially designed to protect the head of field engineers and technicians from falling objects or other types of head trauma.

Telenco store supplies a wide range of hard hats, safety helmets and other accessories for working at height, industrial or construction environments.

How to choose the right safety helmet for your worksite?

Safety helmets must be compliant to BS EN 397, which includes rigorous tests for impact resistance and flame retardance, among others.

There are different types of protective headgear according to the tasks and the hazards workers may face. Thus, it is necessary to first carry out a risk assessment to know the level of protection required.

On most on worksites, for ground works, field workers wear a classic safety helmet, with a baseball cap shape. It protects against falling objects, and with the visor it offers maximum protection. If you need to climb while performing your task, if there is a scaffolding for example, using a climbing helmet may be the best fit to protect your head without obstructing your vision. However, you should make sure that your climbing industrial safety helmet is EN397 / ANSI Z89.1 compliant.

For electrical work, safety helmets have to be also EN50365 compliant. Indeed, when helmets are intended to be used in environments where there is potential contact with high voltage electrical potential (up to 1000Vac or 1500Vdc), they need to be tested for electrical insulation using EN 50365 standards. Plus, they should be used with a visor protection against electric arc flash for optimal protection.

Logging and brush cutting work requires forestry helmets with an integrated mesh visor and noise-cancelling headphones to ensure protection against projections and falling wood.

When performing basic work without major risks for the head, you may think about wearing a safety bump cap, designed to be comfortable, lightweight, suitable for all-day wear without being too bulky.

For every safety hats, in the event of a violent impact, it is recommended to replace the helmet even if damage is not apparent. Otherwise, you risk to keep on wearing a helmet that will not protect you any longer at an optimal level. We recommend every technician to own a personal safety helmet that they will carefully inspect before every intervention.