New Hard Hats Aim to Better Protect Construction Workers From Concussions

Bike helmets and football helmets look quite different than they did at their inception, with upgrades over the years aimed at protecting wearers from brain injuries. But hard hats, worn most often by construction workers, haven’t changed much since they were invented in 1919, and today’s are almost identical to the plastic iteration that became popular in the 1960s, Michael Bottlang told NPR. So Bottlang teamed up with orthopedic surgeon Steven Madey to create a new hard hat — one that they say better protects workers from concussions and other on-the-job injuries. They founded WaveCel, which produces hats with new technology that shields the head from falling objects and also prevents sudden rotation, a primary cause of concussions. “Being able to supply U.S. workers with safer hard hats, made in the USA, is a great privilege for us,” Bottlang tells Nice News, noting that WaveCel technology has been backed by the National Institute of Health. And they’re not the only ones looking to provide better brain protection: Swedish-based company MIPS has rolled out a similar product with the same goals. Such helmets “are keeping the brain more stationary, and that has a lot of potential benefit,” neurosurgeon Brandon Lucke-Wold, who is not involved in the helmet industry, told NPR. Moving forward, Bottlang said his ultimate goal is to bring down the price of WaveCel’s innovative hard hat so it can be accessible to all.

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