I have noticed on my travels that due to the cold weather site operatives are wearing woolly bob caps under their hard hats, would it be advisable to point out to such operatives that this is bad practice and alters the dynamics of the hard hat or let such practice continue. Advise please.

Morning, It does make a difference Merv. Hard hats can be adjusted to suit most 'thick-heads-of hair'. Wearing anything underneath a hat means it is not fitted, adjusted, worn according to the manufacturers instructions and consequently dangerous. As you mention, manufacturers do make a hard hat liner, specific for this purpose and can be clipped to the hat itself. About £8-9 each iirc. A hard hat can be a piece of unforgiving ppe on a cold and frosty building site; better than an injured head. Many PC's ban the wearing of 'Hoodie' hoods and wooly hats for these reasons. Paul.

We use "zero hoods" which are a lining within the hard hat with the facility to attach a zipped scarf / curtain to protect the neck and lower face. Good enough for offshore David

There is also an insurance angle here as an insurer may not pay out thus leaving a company exposed where none specific head wear e.g. woolly hats are worn and there is an event I say use specifically manufactured head protection such as the off-shore stuff - problem being is that companies do not want to pay for such kit

It does sound like quite an interesting one. From a climbing prespective the BMC have good gudiance on this - such as http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Download.aspx?id=629 or http://www.thebmc.co.uk/...s/TCM0410_DMM_Ascent.pdf - and have a technical committee who work with manufacturers on issues such as the one posed. This does make me think that maybe it is a question which is best posed to manufacturers. Is this something which the Research Committee at IOSH could explore? B

Phil's points are spot on re. EL (and PL). The issue re. compensation paid may be reduced if it is found that the employee contributed, in some way to the incident or extent of injuries (contributory negligence), is one which would have to be technically demonstrated. The following case is a good example re. hard hats: http://www.scotcourts.go...pinions/2008csoh40.html. I think in the case where we are speculating on whether wearing a beanie hat underneath would adversely affect the integrity of the hard hat, is one of speculation. The wall we have hit is the need for technical data re. this, where this has been either tested to prove it is or isn’t an impact. The insurers would face a similar situation should they focus in on this issue as well. However, it does make me wonder that given the habit of people wearing beanies/hoodies under their hard-hats whether that this technical data does exist somewhere. Would access my post-grad library access to technical database to check, but the internet isn’t presently letting me. If I do find any papers I will post lines up. B

John J - the liners are flame retadant and registered to EN 531 standard (flame retardant) Link attached (other suppliers available) http://www.outlandsales....p/1376/1/hard_hat_liners David

Not all of them and I think your splitting hairs being as the thread is about the effects of impact not fire.

Ref #16 Also make sure it is the correct shade of Blue !

Not strictly necessary - Network Rail Level 2 standard NR/L2/OHS/021 Issue 3 requires any contractor (or employee of NR) on or near the line or on the lineside to wear a safety helmet that complies with BS EN 397: 1995. The safety helmet shall be white in colour, except where the wearer is accessing Network Rail infrastructure under: a Track Visitors Permit (TVP); a Personal Track Safety (PTS) card with a 'green square' symbol on it; or Network Rail Standard Maintenance Procedure NR/PRC/MTC/SE0089, New Starters Mentoring (Passport Scheme). Where any of these conditions apply, the safety helmet shall be blue in colour (PANTONE 2935c). NOTE 1: A shade similar to PANTONE 2935c blue may also be used if the safety helmet manufacturer selected cannot provide this exact shade. It's the note 1 that you want to notice. Although having said that, although the standard makes it clear it doesn't need to be an exact match, we have had NR people refuse access to operatives wearing blue hats that were (in his view) the wrong blue, so for the sake of an easy life, it's worth trying to make it as close to the right blue as you can get.

I have dropped a line through to International Safety Equipment Association in hope that they can provide some sort of insight and advice on this.