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Dive brief:
- Virginia Tech researchers are looking for ways to better protect noggins in the workplace. After nearly two decades of studying and providing safety ratings for sports helmets, the University of Blacksburg, Virginia’s Helmet Laboratory will begin developing a classification system for construction helmets.
- The 18-month study is designed to better understand the types of head impacts workers experience in workplaces and which helmets are best at protecting them.
- Researchers will first record information about head trauma in the workplace from injury reports and studies from groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then try to recreate those collisions in the lab before analyzing which helmets protect best against the most common types of head injuries.
Diving knowledge:
Helmet technology in sports has gotten better and better, according to Barry Miller, director of outreach and business development for the Helmet Lab. Millions of data points collected by Virginia Tech’s athlete sensor researchers have helped the lab understand how heads are hit and then develop ratings for which helmets best protect athletes from those collisions.
For example, the top-rated college football helmet has a Summation of Tests for Risk Analysis (or STAR) value score of 0.52; that number represents the number of expected concussions a carrier could expect in an average football season where they suffer 420 helmet-to-helmet collisions, Miller told Construction Dive.
Soon, Miller said, the Helmet Lab wants to have those same ratings for work helmets.
Construction leaders like Clark and DPR have it he changed from helmets to helmets, with some making the switch years ago. The traditional helmet only protects workers from blows directly to the top of the head, while hard hats protect workers’ heads from multiple angles.
When it comes to evaluating construction helmets today, however, there is usually one metric: whether the helmet can withstand a certain force that could cause death, from a fall or other contact.
Virginia Tech’s research is more concerned with head trauma that someone may encounter on a day-to-day basis and the best ways to protect a worker’s head from various types of injuries.
To get a sense of those injuries, Miller said, the lab is working on collecting data on head collisions at work. The problem is what information is in the available data.
“Injury reports say ‘I fell and hit my head’. OK. Well, where? How hard? Did you hit your back first?” Miller said.
Miller said the best type of information the lab can use to recreate head injuries is video. Contractors can help by providing any visual aids to indicate how workers fall and hit their heads, which can inform researchers how best to test helmets in the lab.
Over 20 years, head protection in sports has improved greatly, Miller said. The goal is to keep expanding it.
“A five-star helmet today is not the same as it was 10 years ago. It just keeps evolving. And that’s what we want,” he said.
