High-visibility clothing can be important at work sites and at night.
You can find high-visibility clothing in most stores and catalogs that sell bicycle or work wear. Such apparel enables people to see the wearer in poor lighting conditions or while on the job, to prevent accidents. One of the most traditional forms of this product--a fluorescent yellow vest with silver reflective strips--makes the wearer stand out at night. Cyclists, joggers, construction workers and emergency services personnel most commonly wear high-visibility clothing.
History
High-visibility items date back to the 1930s, reports Becky Allen in a 2009 issue of the "Health and Safety Bulletin." Ohioan Bob Switzer invented the first fluorescent paint, which he named Day-Glo, and used it in magic tricks along with his brother Joe. The U.S. Army soon asked Switzer to make a fabric using his technology, to reduce "friendly fire" incidents during World War II. The first item he tested it on was his wife's wedding dress, Allen says.
Evolution
Science company 3M realized in the 1930s that the tiny spherical beads that made the silver screen silver could create a reflective strip of paint, and then tape, Allen reports. In 1968, brothers Hugh and Bill Rowland at the Reflexite company began processing reflective sheeting using small cube-cornered prisms, instead of spheres. While both shapes remain in use, Reflexite has the edge on effectiveness, as its prism shape means light hits off three points, not just one.
Function
The fluorescent color makes the wearer visible during the day, while the reflective strips make it more likely the motorists will see him at night, increasing his safety. A 2004 paper in the "British Medical Journal" showed that motorcyclists were 37 percent less likely to be in an accident when wearing fluorescent and reflective clothing. According to high-visibility vest seller ICU-UCMe, nighttime motorists see a vest wearer approximately three seconds earlier than they see someone not wearing a vest.
Types
Emergency services personnel wear high-visibility clothes to be clearly seen in dark or smoky conditions.
High-visibility clothing comes in three classes, determined by the American National Standards Institute and International Safety Equipment Association (ANSI/ISEA). Class I garments, typically worn by parking lot attendants, attract motorists' attention, while Class II garments meet higher visibility needs, with employers typically providing them for people such as airport baggage handlers. Class III, the most effective type, ranks as the highest visibility clothing, often used by emergency services.
Considerations
In the United States, high-visibility safety clothing must meet standards created by ANSI/ISEA, which mandate as of 2010 that "a garment's background material, and retroreflective or combined-performance material, must be tested and certified by an independent, accredited third-party laboratory." Makers of such clothing must verify and certify that the apparel meets the standards.
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