Posted By Stuart Nagle
Paul.
An interesting scenario. The requirements are that the safety head protection must be properly adjusted withfixtures inside the shell and adjusted correctly to fit the wearer, and that the minimum space between head and shell, as defined by the manufacturer, is attained.
I won't go into the maintenance issues.
Supposing that all the above is done and the head protection is adjusted to a fit that will meet the criteria, even if wearing a 'wooly hat' under the head protection, it could be argued that this is OK, and that the additional layer could provide extra protection in the event of an impact, however, 'wooly hats' are not part of the manufacturers test procedures in respect of their product (as far as I am aware that is), and therefore there may be problems that arise, that due to the wearing of a 'Wooly hat' under the head protection, it invalidates the protection standard and could also (as it is untested) add to any problems associated with an impact on the head protection.
The obvious and immediate results of this could, for example be:
1) due to wooly hat use the head protection slips off, either in ormal use or under impact
2) claim for injury resulting from an impact being void due to the specifications for use of the head protection not be applied, or at least contributory negligence.
2) employers being regarded as negligent for permitting wearing of head protection in a manner outside the required specifications
3) failure of the device as was not properly adjusted due to wooly hat use etc
As a matter of interest, in the last few days I have seena photgraph of a person wearing a wooly balaclava over the outside of a hard hat! whilst it looked 'different' it obviously helped in keeping the wearer warm, and in essence permitted the wearer to have the hard hat properly adjusted to fit his head (one presumes)...
It could be argued therefore that exterior wearing, such as above, is preferential to interior wearing as in your scenario, and may offer aditional assistance in keeping the head protection on the head if no chin strap is employed! However, as the protection afforded by hard hats is that of destruction on impact, disipating the force of the impact around the shell, the wearing of a wooly hat on the outside could create other problems, such as increased risks of further injury when manipulating the person to give first aid, or acting similar to the lump of clay that used to be affixed to the point of crossbow bolts, enabling then to pierce armour rather than glance off!! hence an object piercing the helmet rather than glancing off it!!
Hope these ideas give some assistance to your argument...