The Edge July/August 2025

Photo: GrassRoots Tree and Turf Care, Inc.

twists an ankle over the weekend but tries to pass it off as a work accident on a Monday. SMART SAFETY VESTS Another form of wearable technology is smart safety vests. These vests are often equipped with sensors that can be clipped on or embedded in the fabric. Smart safety vests can measure a worker’s physiological conditions, such as body temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure. These indicators can alert the wearer of potential health risks like heat stress or high blood pressure. Smart safety vests can also be connect ed to GPS and send warnings if a worker enters a danger zone, such as the drop zone when tree work is being conducted. If a worker continues to work in an unsafe manner, this information can be sent to the supervisor so they can respond in real time and provide additional safety training. ELOKON’s smart safety vest uses a proximity detection system to prevent vehicle-pedestrian collisions like when a worker and a forklift driver get too close. The vest has multiple warning methods with LED lights, acoustic alarms and vibrations.

SOUND LEVEL METER APP Hearing loss is the most common occupational disease in the United

Photo: Davey Tree Expert Company

States, and noise levels on a jobsite can often pose a threat to team members’ hearing. It’s important to reduce your employees’exposure to noise above 85 dB. Exposure to noise over this level can damage hearing over time. As the decibels increase, the safe listening time decreases. Instead of guessing or assuming that a piece of equipment isn’t too loud, take advantage of the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app to measure workplace noise and determine if workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels. This free app combines the best features of professional sound level meters and noise dosimeters into one simple tool. TE

Being able to provide footage for these situations increased employee buy-in moving forward. “If I did it over again, I just would have done it sooner,”says Josh Wise, CEO of GrassRoots. Wise says they also haven’t had any work claims since implementing the body cameras. For instance, when someone

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