I have a PPE manufacturer telling me not to worry about having non-melting fibers next to the skin with regard to a hard hat suspension system to be worn under an arc rated hood. I suppose if that statement is correct a hard hat suspension system would have to be considered an "incidental amount" of fibers not meeting the requirement. The same person also said that the hard hats themselves do not carry an arc flash rating. He told me to purchase dielectric hard hats because "that is what everyone in the industry is using." I have seen references to arc rated hard hats on this forum but have not located any vendor who offers them. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks for any input you can provide.

There is no ASTM standard for arc ratings of hard hats that I'm aware of.

I'd be most concerned about the brow pad.