Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is vital for a safe and compliant construction site. Because construction sites have the highest injury and fatality rates of any field in the United States (and three to four times higher than the average job), PPE can go a long way to mitigating dangerous conditions. Protective equipment in the past has been useful at preventing injuries and deaths, but there is still a lot of room for improvement as technology allows for better monitoring and faster response times. And while drones have been used very effectively to eliminate the need for workers to enter unsafe situations, safety needs to start with each individual.
Reducing Lift Injuries
Lift injuries are common in any workplaces that requires repetitive lifting of heavy objects. While it’s easy to pull a muscle, dislocate a joint, or slip a disk, injuries are not limited to acute problems in the back, hips, shoulders, and neck. It’s just as easy to suffer from fatigue, overuse, and problems of endurance and stamina. Fatigue can also lead to impaired judgment, which can in turn lead to even bigger injuries that could have been preventable
Wearable exoskeletons are the answer to cutting down on these numbers over time. Suits like the IX Back Air are designed to take the weight off the lower back. They can be worn like a support belt and weigh around five pounds or so. They reduce strain and compression on the spine when bending over, improve endurance, better one’s posture, and reduce fatigue. In the form of a support belt, they also allow for freedom of movement, which is essential for a construction site that requires employees to operate heavy machinery.
Monitoring Health and Safety
Very few companies may be able to improve on the basic function of a hard hat or vest. A hard hat protects the head; a vest makes the person more visible around dangerous equipment. However, features can be added to any basic equipment to improve their functionality and return on investment. Sensors that track a person’s health and safety can be embedded in basic equipment (like this vest from German Bionic and keep track of an employee’s heart rate, breathing, fatigue, vital signs, and more. They can detect whether the person has fallen or has entered a danger zone—too close to a ledge or a large piece of equipment. Other sensors can keep track of the worker’s environment, including temperature and air quality. While all of these measurements are important, the ability to communicate the data with a supervisor or rescue personnel may be the most essential. If a worker can’t communicate where they are or the danger they’re in, they can be easy to find with data shared via the cloud.
Better PPE
Some PPE serves a basic function and can’t be improved on much, but a lot of it is seeing breakthroughs that will revolutionize worker safety. New hearing protection products are one of those areas seeing vast improvement. Previous hearing protectors had to choose between shielding workers from loud sounds that could permanently damage their eardrums and risking the dangers associated with reduced hearing in an active site with coworkers, equipment, and hazardous material that requires constant teamwork and communication. New hearing protection has noise-cancelling technology that filters out the loud and useless roar of machinery but preserves sounds that a worker needs, like voices and warning signals. Modern hearing protectors also feature Bluetooth technology that allow them to communicate wirelessly and easily with each other.