Breath of Fresh Air

Whether it's a miner, a delivery person, or a construction worker, blue-collar workers face a variety of environments during their work hours, ranging from dusty underground mines to high-temperature furnaces and polluted roads. Such harsh working conditions take a toll on their day-to-day work efficiency and also cause long-term health issues. In India alone, on any given day, there are about 700,000 to 1 million food delivery agents on their two-wheelers traversing through the cityscape. A majority of these delivery agents operate around Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. In recent years, the number of vehicles on the roads in these cities has drastically increased, leading to a decrease in air quality. Staying on roads throughout the day and inhaling pollutants constantly causes shortness of breath and chest congestion in these workers, with some developing more serious ailments. Due to the majority of blue-collar workers being from financially weaker sections of society, they avoid seeking medical assistance at the early signs of ailments and continue to suffer. Once the situation gets out of hand, it leads to them taking leaves from work, getting laid off, and, over that, the medical expenses and regular hospital visits snowball into a big ball of misery for these hardworking cogs of societies. Though various types of face masks are available in the market, from simple cloth ones to N95s that can filter out 95% of airborne particles to tackle this issue, most workers prefer not to spend money on these disposable masks, not to mention the waste they generate once they reach the end of their usable life. Some people prefer simply wrapping a cloth around their face. Though it helps keep pollutants out to an extent, it becomes a major discomfort during hot weather, similar to face masks, which become suffocating during hot or humid weather. Air pollution is not the only issue at fault here. Global warming has a major role to play as well. With the average global temperature increasing every year, summers have become longer and hotter. The average time spent working under the hot sun for construction workers, security guards, and oil rig workers has increased too. This leads to problems such as heatstroke, dehydration, and faster fatiguing. Apart from frequent breaks under the shade or dousing oneself with water, there is hardly any solution out there to tackle this problem in the areas where these workers operate majorly. Extreme heat affects the worker’s morale, health, and productivity. These inoperable temperatures cost economies trillions in lost productivity worldwide. At Proxgy, we are solving this problem by providing blue-collar workers with clean air to breathe and keeping a cool head with our AirHat. We targeted one piece of equipment that is quite common across multiple blue-collar industries and aimed to modify it in such a way that it expands its utility and functionality. Upon carefully examining the hard hat worn by these workers, we saw a lot of potential in it. By designing an air duct throughout the interior of the shell of the hard hat and smartly placing air intake and outlet vents, a standard hard hat was transformed into the AirHat. The air intake vents placed on the top of the hard hat’s helm as well as the back of the hard hat suck in impure air from the environment. This air travels through the ducts and ventilates the top of the head, evaporating sweat and maintaining a cooler head temperature. Air drawn in from the top of the hard hat’s helm goes through a filter cassette and gets pushed down right in front of the wearer’s face, forming a curtain of clean air, safe to breathe. This curtain also helps keep pollutants from the environment away from the wearer’s breathing passage. By deploying AirHat for mining, construction, and delivery services, industries would be able to save a lot of money by avoiding worker inefficiency. The workers would also be able to avoid health ailments and perform efficiently in the harsh working conditions.