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High-visibility clothing
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High-visibility clothing, a type of personal protective equipment (PPE), is any clothing worn that has highly reflective properties or a color that is easily discernible from any background. Yellow waistcoats worn by Emergency Services are a common example.
Part of the surface of the garment may have retroreflective stripes. This way they become much more visible in the dark for observers near a light source, such as the driver of a car with its headlights on.
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Encyclopedia
High-visibility clothing, a type of personal protective equipment (PPE), is any clothing worn that has highly reflective properties or a color that is easily discernible from any background. Yellow waistcoats worn by Emergency Services are a common example.
Part of the surface of the garment may have retroreflective stripes. This way they become much more visible in the dark for observers near a light source, such as the driver of a car with its headlights on. The pattern of the retroreflecting parts also helps to distinguish between objects and people.
For greater visibility during the daytime, very bright colors are used for the main body of the garment by means of fluorescent material.
A related type of PPE corresponding to maximizing visual awareness in dangerous environments is head gear mounted mirrors. They allow the wearer to see potential dangers rather than just being seen.
Users
In general, people who wear high-visibility clothing are those who need to be be seen during poor lighting or weather conditions, or when working in environments where there is a lot of moving machinery.
Examples include pedestrians, workers, cyclists, motorcyclists, hunters and hikers.
The attention-gaining nature of high-visibility clothing has also led to its occasional use as a fashion statement.
Federal law in the United States requires all personnel working on a federally funded highway to wear a high visibility vest starting on November 25, 2008.
Firefighters are excluded since the vest does not comply with NFPA regulations.
However, paramedics, police officers, tow truck operators, and road workers are required by law.
In the UK, Health and Safety regulations state that anyone working in a low visibility environment, or where there is a risk of not being easily seen, High Visibility clothing must be worn. An example is given below:
Application for rail workers in the UK
In the UK, it is a requirement of Network Rail that all personnel working on or around the track wear High Visibility clothing (or HV gear as it is known).
The number of deaths and injuries on the rail network has been reduced considerably since the early 1970s when High Visibility clothing and the acceptance of the need for it became common. HV Clothing then was very low tech, usually just a simple yellow or orange tabbard (similar to those worn in netball).
Since then, features of HV clothing such as the quick release standard and the EN471 High Visibility standard, have improved the effectiveness and contributed to improved safety for rail workers.
High visibility elements have been incorporated into many styles of jacket and other items.
These can include:
- Wet weather coats (both breathable and non breathable)
- Over trousers (both breathable and non breathable)
- Rucksacks
- Laptop bags
- T-Shirts and Polo Shirts
- Waist coats (both with the EN510 standard and without, as well as flame retardant types)
- Body warmers
- Fleeces
- Sweatshirts
- Bomber jackets (both breathable and non breathable)
- Boiler suits (both fire retardant and non)
- Salopets
Many of the garments listed also come with Goretex.
High Visibility clothing can also be embroidered or printed with names or logos.
Gallery
Image:Warnweste_gelb.jpg|Fluorescent yellow vest with retroreflective strips
Image:Lowering rescue basket.jpg|Firefighters wearing coats with high-visibility strips
Image:Reflektor 10.JPG|Retroreflective material in light microscope, magnification 3.5 x
Image:Reflektor 11.JPG|Retroreflective material in light microscope, magnification 8 x
Image:Reflektor 12.JPG|Retroreflective material in light microscope, magnification 20 x
Image:Reflective leg band in Scanning Electron Microscope, 15x.GIF|Retroreflective material in Scanning Electron Microscope, magnification 15 x
Image:Reflective leg band in Scanning Electron Microscope, 200x.GIF|Retroreflective material in Scanning Electron Microscope, magnification 200 x
Effectiveness
While it seems intuitively obvious that high-visibility clothing should make its wearer easier for vehicle operators, hunters, etc., to see and avoid, there are surprisingly few studies to quantify the effectiveness of high-visibility clothing for particular classes of users.
Motorcyclists
The Hurt Report and a New Zealand study found that high-visibility clothing significantly reduced multiple vehicle accidents involving motorcycles.
Bicyclists
Traffic risks to the bicyclist are similar to those faced by motorcyclists (see SMIDSY), with the main differences being that bicycling speeds are typically lower, and the bicyclist wears less protective gear. Nonetheless, there seems to be even less research on the effectiveness of high-visibility clothing for the bicyclist than for the motorcyclist. However, a number of vendors market high-visibility clothing for bicyclists. From a good vantage point along a road or cycleway with a sight line of 1 km or more, one can watch bicyclists approaching during daylight, and see that those clad in high-visibility clothing become readily visible long before dull-clad bicyclists riding next to them. Research is needed to quantify the extent to which this plainly evident conspicuity advantage might translate into fewer bike/car collisions.
Drivers
Belgian, Finnish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Austrian, Portuguese, Slovakian, Slovenian and Spanish law demand that every vehicle is provided with a high-visibility vest with reflective material certified according to EU standards that is to be worn in emergency situations that force the driver to exit the vehicle. Unlike common belief, the driver is not required to exit the vehicle wearing high-visibility clothing. However, the law demands that the driver wear it before any attempt to repair the vehicle.
In Germany and the Czech Republic only commercial used vehicles have to provide a vest.
Standards
Various ISO member bodies have published similar standards for high-visibility clothing to be worn as personal protective equipment.
ANSI/ISEA 107-1999
The American National Standards Institute published a standard for high-visibility clothing in 1999. The standard defines three classes of successively more-visible garments, to protect workers exposed to successively higher levels of risk from motor vehicles and heavy equipment.
ANSI/ISEA 107-1999 is a voluntary industry consensus standard; however, Occupational Safety regulations support its implementation by employers whose employees are at risk from motor traffic or heavy equipment.
ANSI/ISEA 107-2004
ANSI revised the standard in 2004.
ANSI/ISEA 207-2006
In 2006, ANSI released the 207-2006, or American National Standard for High-Visibility Public Safety Vests, in response to issues raised by public safety officials with respect to the ANSI 107 vest design. Their concerns were both tactical and influenced by a need to differentiate between law enforcement/emergency personnel and the vests worn by construction workers.
The changes have different requirements for fluorescent background material, specifically allowing for a shorter design that allows equipment belt access. It also includes many optional features, such as a 5-point breakaway design for easy removal, panels readily identifying the wearer as an emergency responder, and radio and badge pockets/holders.
BS EN 471:2003
The British Standard for high visibility clothing.
Clothing must comply with the EN471 High Visibility Specifications.
There are three levels of protection:
Class 1
Class 1 defines the lowest visibility level
e.g. High Visibility trousers with two 5 cm reflective bands around each leg. These become Class 3 when worn with a Class 3 jacket.
Class 2
The class 2 defines an intermediary visibility level. Example: vests. Two 5 cm bands of reflective around body or on one 5 cm band around body and braces to both shoulders.
Class 3
The class 3 defines the highest level of visibility. Example jacket with long sleeves, jacket and trouser suit. Two 5cm bands of reflective tape around the body, arms and braces over both shoulders.
89/686/EEC
A European Commission directive which covers high visibility clothing.
CSA-Z96
The Canadian Standard for high visibility clothing.
See also
External links
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