In driving around town, I have noticed there are many different colors of hard hats being worn by construction companies. Does the color mean anything?

There is not a national standardized color classification and structure for hard hats. I have seen green hard hats, yellow, red and primarily white here in Yavapai County. For instance, Fann Contracting, issues green hard hats to their “new” employees. Well seasoned Fann employees know to give extra supervision to the “green hard hats”. This allows safety personnel and site managers to keep an eye on these new employees until they are trained and fully qualified. This is an excellent way to ensure that younger new workers are being safe and being watched. White might possibly signify supervisors, blue technical advisors, red safety inspectors and yellow, laborers. However, there is no rule of thumb for colors vs. position. There are many different styles of hard hats all of which provide comfortable head protection for workers. Hard hats are predominantly used in workplace environments such as construction sites to protect the head from falling objects, impact with objects, debris, bad weather and electric shock. Hard hats do not have an expiration date, however, they should be replaced if they develop a crack or the interior suspension is damaged.