High Visibility Clothing - Factors Easily Overlooked

By: William Penworthy Click author's name for more of his/her articles

High visibility clothing is an aspect of health and safety which can too easily be overlooked. In a desire to ensure safety often it is the physical protection against immediate dangers such as the use of equipment, drills, saws and other machinery which is given high priority. This results in safety clothing such as safety gloves, protective eye wear and hard hats being provided immediately.

But high visibility clothing protects against those dangers which are not always immediately apparent - the dangers lurking round the corner, or which may be being operated from a distance. High visibility clothing is designed to prevent the danger, whereas the majority of other safety clothing is designed to protect against danger. This is the difference, and it is for this reason that both the design and choice of high visibility clothing needs to be approached from a different perspective.

Another major assumption which too many businesses and organisations make is to think that because high visibility clothing does not regularly experience hard wear in the same way as working safety gauntlets, there is less need to regularly replace the clothing apparel. This is to gravely overlook some of the additional factors which can, over time, render high visibility clothing much less effective, placing the worker at much more risk. It is important when choosing high visibility safety wear to consider the factors which may impact on the life of such clothing.

The great British outdoors is renowned for throwing a remarkably wide range of weathers and environmental conditions on those working outdoors. From early morning mists to thick fog, heavy rain, gloomy, overcast days and dark nights. These are just a few of the many conditions in which workers may find themselves working - at any time of the year. It is also a fact that these conditions can all contribute to a wide range of dangers and risks which are often entirely unavoidable.

For example, working on or near roads always presents a certain level of danger. Signs, barriers and lights can all help to minimise risk and ensure traffic moves along a predefined route past the work in progress. But with workers moving about it is not always easy to see people who may be on the edge of the roadworks, or who may be crossing the area, or may be actually moving or adjusting the peripheral warning equipment. High visibility clothing will be ideal in such conditions as it is designed to reflect any directional light very vividly. In such cases, a car's headlights will reflect off the retroreflective bands on any safety clothing so brightly that it will be as effective as wearing several halogen lights. This renders the workers very much more visible, and helps minimise risk.

But all too often it isn't the traffic that represents the greatest danger, as every year many workers are injured as a direct result of heavy machinery or vehicles moving about on the site itself. Whilst such machinery rarely moves particularly quickly, it is often used in such a way that it may be reversing one minute, turning the next, moving forwards, reversing - the movements can be hard to track, and the operator is required to be aware of everything around them in a full 360 degree radius. Working at night, or in poor weather conditions can make this very hard, and it is in just such conditions that the majority of accidents occur.

Wearing high visibility clothing is essential in such circumstances, enabling workers to be extremely visible, lighting up almost as beacons. This greatly helps to increase operator awareness of nearby personnel, and has been shown to drastically reduce the chance of accident or injury within a working environment.

But where the environment is concerned there are several aspects which also need to be considered, any of which could, over time, render the high visibility clothing much less effective. Placing too much faith in equipment which is old, worn, faded or damaged can be even more dangerous than not wearing the equipment at all in some cases. Although high visibility safety clothing is manufactured to very strict, and very high standards, there is always going to be an inevitable reductions in effectiveness over time, and this can be exacerbated as a result of particular conditions.

For example, wearing high visibility clothing outdoors, can result in a gradual decline in effectiveness. This could be due to UV damage over time through being in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time, or even cracking, fading or general deterioration due to having to wash the clothing more regularly if it is subject to working conditions which cause it become soiled. When choosing high visibility clothing it is important to make sure that it is fully compliant with all safety legislation, but that you are also aware of the existing clothing, and whether it is still able to perform to those same high standards.