The Field Engineer is proud to support and share news of the annual event, "Hard Hat Awareness Week," which runs from the 9th to the 15th of June.
The event was created by Chris Tidy.
"Hi, I'm Chris Tidy and I'm the founder of Hard Hat Awareness Week. So what is Hard Hat Awareness Week? So Hard Hat Awareness Week was actually born back in June of 2020, but like so many other things that year it actually took a back seat to the Covid pandemic that had taken grip of the UK and Europe and plunged most of us into compulsory lockdown. So the week was actually pushed back to September and proved to be quite successful. With participants as far afield as Dubai and the USA. As well as plenty of active activity of course in the UK and Europe. So the 2021 event was even bigger and better as industries actually got together for the cause and made it a very successful event although the Covid effect was still sort of quite apparent, and most Industries at the time were obviously focusing on respiratory protection of course. So the event was originally designed to highlight the need for industrial workers to wear head protection. So through my own sort of personal experience, I'd seen sort of time and time again instances where the worker would not wear their head protection or had worn it incorrectly. But this was not the only issue. As workers didn't actually realize that their head protection had an expiry date, and they didn't know that when it wasn't being used that it should be really sort of stored correctly in a, you know, a dry sort of safe core space. So over a period of time other issues surfaced. So workers would mark their head protection perhaps with a pen or maybe with stickers, and both of these which you know, if you don't know you you don't know, but both of these could affect the crystalline structure of the head protection and may cause an issue with the Integrity of the shell. One thing. Just one thing that struck me was the fact that workers and some companies would pay upward of 60, 70, sometimes even 80 pounds for a pair of branded safety boots, but it when it came to protecting their head they were against paying more than six pounds. So our heads contain our brain which powers the rest of our body and without that working properly, due to maybe a head injury our life would not be the same.So the week was also designed to cover off things like training, wear and care, we also had companies that conducted audits during that time as well, of all of their hard hats. But most of those initiatives were actually aimed at raising awareness of head injuries and to try to get people to understand that if you damage your head you could sustain a head injury, that you could sustain could be very more devastating and have a profound effect on your life and those around you. So during the week we work very closely with our partners and supporters to raise awareness of impacts, and it's really important to, you know, know and raise awareness of things like concussion which can occur after an impact. Even if you're wearing a helmet you can still sustain a concussion, because concussion is only a symptom of something that's actually happened. And it's always obviously good to seek advice afterwards. So that's sort of pretty much it really. That's Hard Hat Awareness Week. What it's all about. is this year obviously, as it is every single year, it's 9th to the 15th of June, and we'd like as many companies, people, Industries, to join us by conducting some sort of activity. Perhaps doing some training during the week around head injuries, perhaps just auditing their hard hats, perhaps personally it's you're one man band, one woman band, and you just want to take that week to just check your hard hat is in date, and check that everything is there that needs to be there for your hard hat to function properly. So that's pretty much me, Chris Tidy, and thanks very much for listening I appreciate it".
