b'Why Adopting Better Helmets ina severe fall.Construction is a No-Brainer A helmet can only do its job if it stays between the head and Type II helmets better protect workers from fatalthe impacting surface. falls, yet are underused, writes the director of Virginia Techs helmet safety research lab. These findings show that the technology already exists to Across the U.S., construction accounts for one in fiveprotect workers from the most serious head injuries. The workplace deaths and nearly half of all fatal falls, slipsproblem is adoption. Data should drive safety decisions, and trips. Nearly 60% of traumatic brain injury deaths inand the Helmet Labs newly released STAR ratings for this industry come from falls. Many of those deaths couldconstruction helmets provide that data. STARshort for have been prevented with better head protection that staysSummation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk identifies on the head during a fall and dissipates impact energy.which standard-certified helmets offer the most effective energy management under realistic conditions. This should At the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, weve spent yearsbe the starting point for the industry. studying how helmets manage impact energy. In sports, that work helped drive major design improvements. WhenAs manufacturers integrate higher-energy testing into their we applied the same methods to construction helmets, weR&D processes and contractors choose equipment found a clear opportunity for progress.accordingly, the next generation of helmets will prevent The industry has relied for decades on Type I helmets,injuries that today are still considered inevitable. designed to protect against a tape measure or wrench dropped from above. They use a suspension system toPut bluntly, construction workers should be wearing Type II absorb vertical impacts but lack a chin strap and have nosafety helmets anytime theres risk of a fall or a head padding. Type II helmets add chin straps and internalimpact. Making that switch will help prevent debilitating padding that can diffuse energy during impacts.injuries and save lives.Our testing showed the difference is not subtle. Compared to Type I helmets, Type II helmets reduced fall-related concussion risk by 34% and skull fracture risk by 65% onBy Steve Rowsonaverage. For the highest-performing helmets, those reductions reached 48% and 77%. These numbers meanSteve Rowson is a professor of biomedical that many fall-related head injuries and deaths are preventable right now.engineering and mechanics and the director of the Helmet Lab at Virginia Tech. Opinions Choosing headgearare the authors own. So why are Type I helmets still the norm on most job sites? Workers often describe Type II helmets as hotter or heavier, and companies cite cost. Another factor is the lenient testing standard. Under the ANSI/ISEA Z89.1 specification, the U.S. safety standard for industrial head protection, there is little incentive for manufacturers to exceed the minimum performance requirements.Type I helmets are tested only for penetration and force transmission, not for how well they absorb impact energy. Type II helmet certification includes an energy-attenuation test, but the condition represents a drop of only about two feet, a far cry from a worker falling from height. As a result, even helmets that meet the current standard are certified under impacts far less severe than those that kill workers. To understand what occurs in real falls, we recreated them. Focusing on severe-but-survivable falls from heights of 14 to 25 feet, we tested helmets under impact energies three times higher than assessed by the standard. Type II helmets absorbed substantially more energy, and their chin straps will keep the helmet in place during a fall. Type I helmets are unlikely to stay on the head during 10'