It is the employer’s responsibility to equip employees with Personal Protective Equipment. This is to minimize the risks associated with the work being performed. One of the key elements increasing work safety is providing employees, wherever necessary, with appropriate warning clothing. High-visibility clothing, also known as reflective clothing, is used wherever there is a risk of hitting an employee by mobile vehicles, machines and other objects moving on the roads with limited visibility. Although high-visibility clothing does not provide complete safety, it optimizes the level of visibility and significantly reduces the risk of an accident. Warning clothing is necessary to be used in situations where the presence of an employee must be visually signaled at any time of the day or night, when natural or artificial lighting is limited. Such garments may be made entirely of yellow, red or orange-red fluorescent fabric or may contain reflective inserts. High-visibility clothing is most often divided into:

• high visibility trousers, including overalls
• protective jackets
• sets, including raincoats
• reflective vests
• work and protective jackets
• coats
• T-shirts, warning shirts
• work and protective gloves
• reflective stripes worn over ordinary clothes
• helmets, protective helmets
• winter hats
• baseball caps
• socks
• work and safety shoes

Also in everyday life, high-visibility clothing is used to improve the safety of people moving at dusk, cycling, jogging. Putting on a reflective vest significantly increases road and other safety, as evidenced by statistical data. High-visibility clothing can be divided into three classes in terms of the level of protection:

• class III provides the highest level of protection that is required for people working on / near highways, two-lane roads and at airports,
• class II provides an intermediate level of protection that is required for people working on / near roads as well as for truck drivers,
• Class I provides the lowest level of protection that is required for people working on private roads.

For each of the above-mentioned protection classes, the size of the surface was determined, as well as the arrangement of fluorescent and reflective elements. The minimum width of the retro-reflective material is 50 mm, and the amount of the reflective tape depends on the class of the garment. The regulations impose requirements on the manufacturer regarding color and reflectivity, as well as an obligation to inform the user of the product about the method of washing and the maximum number of maintenance cycles, so that the color of the background materials does not change.

Reflective clothing should always be used when the worker is exposed to being hit by a car, machine or construction and road equipment. This type of clothing is used, among others, by road workers, policemen, firefighters, machine operators, builders, airport and port workers.

Warning reflective clothing is classified as protective clothing, therefore, without any exceptions, it must be certified. Requirements for high-visibility clothing are specified in the EN ISO 20471 standard. Here, it is worth recalling again that manufacturers are required to provide information on the maximum number of maintenance cycles that will not reduce the protective level of the clothing. When choosing protective clothing, you should choose clothing from reputable manufacturers, made of the highest quality materials.

Source: https://bezpieczenstwo-bhp.pl/blog/257_odziez-ostrzegawcza-i-jej-zastosowanie.html

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.