Pittsburgh-based safety equipment manufacturer MSA has come up with a way to make hard hats greener — it uses sugar.

While it sounds like construction workers would be in for a sticky mess after that first rainstorm hits, that’s not the case. MSA developed the hats in Brazil using high-density polyethylene sourced from sugarcane.

“By developing a hard hat sourced from sugar, we have reduced the overall carbon footprint that’s associated with the entire life-cycle of this particular product, from start to finish,” said Eric Beck, MSA’s global director of strategic marketing, in a release.

The “green” polyethylene is made from sugarcane ethanol, which results in a smaller carbon footprint because, for each ton of the material produced, up to 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide are captured from the atmosphere. Conversely, Beck said one ton of polyethylene sourced from petrochemicals emits more than 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The final kicker is that green polyethylene is 100 percent recyclable.

MSA claims the hats are the first industrial safety product produced from nearly 100 percent renewable resources. I wonder if the U.S. Green Building Council has LEED points for that.

For more information, check out www.MSAsafety.com.

In addition to the spate of workers’ comp bills Jerry wrote about, there are also numerous prevailing wage reform bills that have been introduced. Some seek to expand the scope of the act — to continue what seems to be a never-ending expansion of who must be paid prevailing wage, some seek to shrink the act back to its original job site boundaries, another requires certified payrolls on all projects. There are others that seek to increase transparency through public postings of wage determinations or remove the payment of prevailing wage from certain school construction. It’s much too early to predict where these bills might end up, but it certainly is proof that prevailing wage reform is a hot topic for organized labor and for construction firms — and should be for public owners and taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill when the application of prevailing wage increases the cost of roads, schools and other publicly funded construction projects.

A trio of workers’ comp reform bills were passed by the State Senate last week. Three others may be voted on soon.

The bills that passed are:

• Senate Bill 5112 – Allows claims representatives for retro employers and groups to schedule independent medical examinations and vocational rehabilitation assessments, subject to certain conditions. Click here for vote tally.
• Substitute Senate Bill 5127 – Addresses the arbitrary 55-year-old age limitation on structured settlement availability. Original bill would have removed the age restriction on voluntary claims settlements but an amendment lowered the age restriction to 40 rather than eliminating it. Click here for the vote tally.
• Senate Bill 5128 – Also deals with structured settlements, the bill streamlines the program in keeping with the legislation that passed in 2011 with a strong bipartisan vote. Click here for the vote tally.

These bills must still be passed by the State House of Representatives. The three other workers’ comp bills are:

• Senate Bill 5124 – Streamlines the way time-loss benefits are calculated for injured workers by replacing the current formula, which varies based on the worker’s marital status and number of children to a standard two-thirds percent.
• Senate Bill 5126 – Addresses a recent Supreme Court ruling by reaffirming that the state and self-insured companies can reimburse their benefit costs when a third party outside of the employment relationship causes a workers’ injury on the job.
• Senate Bill 5125 – Redefines “occupational diseases” to be a condition that must arise out of the course of employment and be proximately caused by the distinctive conditions of that employment. The increased frequency of occupational diseases for the natural aging process is one that has been seen on many cases. This legislation would put back in place the original intent of what the law was designed to cover for Industrially related Occupational Diseases.

These bills will help stem a looming $110 million a year surcharge on employers. The reforms passed in 2011 slowed big rises in premiums but didn’t solve all of the problems plaguing the system. Unless lawmakers take the next step, employers are facing a $110 million surcharge for each of the next 10 years as L&I attempts to rebuild its depleted reserve fund. Building reserves is a good thing, but doing it with large surcharges will hinder job creation.

Contractors should keep an eye on House Bill 1007 about covered loads.  The bill:

• Requires that from August 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014, any vehicles operating on a paved public highway hauling dirt, sand, rocks, or gravel susceptible to escaping must use a cover if the vehicle is equipped with a load cover.
• Requires that after June 30, 2014, a vehicle operating on a paved public highway hauling dirt, sand, rocks, or gravel susceptible to escaping must use a cover and must not exceed the horizontal freeboard of the bed of the vehicle hauling the load.
• Provides an exemption for the Department of Transportation when applying deicers and sand for snow and ice control, maintenance operations for emergencies, or maintenance on closed roads, but still requires six inches of freeboard.
• Requires the Washington State Patrol to conduct random emphasis patrols to enforce covered load requirements.

The bill is sponsored by Reps. Kagi, Clibborn, Stanford, Ryu, Moscoso, Hudgins, Reykdal, Fitzgibbon, Appleton, Maxwell, Green and Fey.