Hard hats vs. safety helmets: Which is best?

News last year that the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is replacing the traditional hard hats used by its employees with safety helmets ended up being one of constructionbriefing.com’s most-read stories of 2023.

Explaining its decision, OSHA said it wanted to ensure its employees were better protected, arguing that traditional hard hats, which date back to the 1960s, could fall off a worker’s head if they slip or trip, as well as lacking in ventilation.