An organization began by two scientists has developed a tough hat that can do a greater job defending employees from on-the-job mind accidents. (Story aired on All Issues Thought of on Sept. 9, 2022.)
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Greater than 30 million employees within the U.S. put on security helmets to stop head accidents. But most of those arduous hats provide little safety in opposition to critical impacts. Right here’s NPR’s Jon Hamilton.
JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: Concussions, or delicate traumatic mind accidents, get loads of consideration after they occur on a soccer discipline. However these accidents are much more quite a few in one other setting. Michael Bottlang directs the Legacy Biomechanics Lab in Portland, Ore.
MICHAEL BOTTLANG: The place do probably the most mind accidents occur that must be prevented? It is actually amongst employees, building employees, anyone carrying arduous hats.
HAMILTON: A couple of quarter of all concussions in adults happen on the job. And Bottlang says one purpose is that tough hats, in contrast to soccer helmets, have not modified a lot.
BOTTLANG: Sadly, right this moment’s most ceaselessly used arduous hats look similar to those from the ’60s.
HAMILTON: There is a plastic outer shell with an interior suspension system comprised of webbing. Some fashions additionally embrace foam padding on the edges and a chinstrap. This design does a tremendous job defending the mind from a direct hit. However arduous hats aren’t so good when the impression comes at an angle. Bottlang says that is as a result of the helmet, and the pinnacle inside it, turns violently.
BOTTLANG: Consider a boxer, get knocked within the chin, makes the pinnacle spin, and also you drop like a fly. The human mind is instantly injured by a rotational pressure.
HAMILTON: The mind is a bit like an egg yolk, a smooth capsule surrounded by liquid inside a tough shell. You possibly can shake an egg forcefully with out disrupting the contents. However should you spin one arduous sufficient, the yolk inside will rupture. Dr. Steve Madey, an orthopedic surgeon in Portland, says most arduous hats and helmets act like an eggshell.
STEVE MADEY: They do a job at decreasing pressure, in order that they serve a objective. But when they don’t seem to be optimized to lower the spin, they don’t seem to be optimized to stop harm.
HAMILTON: So Madey and Bottlang based an organization referred to as WaveCel to make higher helmets. Their inspiration got here from observing what occurs to a ball when it strikes the bottom at an angle. Madey says ordinarily, the ball does extra than simply bounce.
MADEY: It’s going to hit the bottom, it’s going to have friction, and it will create spin.
HAMILTON: Except the bottom is manufactured from one thing particular.
MADEY: In the event you throw a ball right into a sandpit, the sand provides beneath, proper? It would not impart spin to the ball.
HAMILTON: So the corporate developed a helmet liner comprised of a particular plastic honeycomb designed to behave like sand.
MADEY: The honeycomb construction is a really mild, breathable materials that isn’t solely good at absorbing that linear pressure but in addition breaks that spin the way in which sand would.
HAMILTON: The liner will be present in a number of big-brand sports activities helmets. And now WaveCel is providing its personal line of arduous hats. In each sports activities helmets and arduous hats, the corporate faces competitors from the Swedish agency MIPS. Research present MIPS know-how additionally reduces spin however not as nicely. A WaveCel arduous hat prices $189, a number of occasions the worth of an ordinary helmet. And it isn’t clear whether or not any type of anti-spin know-how will change into normal on job websites. Dr. Brandon Lucke-Wold, a neurosurgeon on the College of Florida, says he has but to see a lot change.
BRANDON LUCKE-WOLD: Even the development employees I noticed biking dwelling right this moment had been carrying arduous hats which might be similar to what I noticed 10, 15 years in the past.
HAMILTON: Lucke-Wold says that is one purpose he is nonetheless treating sufferers who get a concussion regardless of carrying a tough hat. So he’d wish to see extra employees in helmets that assist cut back the pace at which the pinnacle spins in an impression.
LUCKE-WOLD: By having this slowing course of from these helmets, it is preserving the mind extra stationary. And in order that has loads of potential profit.
HAMILTON: Together with preserving employees out of the hospital and on the job.
Jon Hamilton, NPR Information.
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