Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Various Classes Of Safety Vests

By Amanda Baird


Certain out jobs that are risky require workers to put on safety vests. Such jobs include; emergency response, construction work, traffic control among other occupations. The safety clothing have reflective material and are made of bright colors to make the workers visible when working and hence keeping them safe. The law requires employers in high risk occupations to provide their employees with such protective clothing.

Such vests exist in various colors and can be used to differentiate the risky environments from ones that are not very risky. Employers all over therefore have the responsibility of learning about the various kinds of vests and provide their employees with the most appropriate ones for their jobs. It is important that they are aware of the necessity of such clothing.

Different classes of protective wear exist. The first class are those used in occupations with low traffic and where employees have high visibility of oncoming vehicles or equipment. Vehicles and equipment in such an occupation are moved in a speed not exceeding 25mphs. Employees who wear type 1 material include parking lot attendants, shopping carts retrievers among other people. Color of material used in this category may be orange, lime green or yellow.

The next category is class 2 which must be worn by workers in a job that might be greatly affected by poor weather and vehicles and equipment are moved at a speed exceeding 25mphs. Tasks in such environments may distract an employee from viewing oncoming traffic and other activities happening nearby. Employees that require type 2 clothing include; traffic controllers, ground team, crossing guards among other people. The color of their clothing can be yellow, orange or lime green.

The final type is class 3 and these are used in a highly risky environment to offer the highest visibility. The speeds usually in these occupations can be very high and workers have limited visibility because of nature of their jobs. People needed to wear this kind of protective gear include; fire fighters, paramedics, cops, road construction workers and other persons responding to an emergency situation. Vests in this group usually have long sleeves unlike the other two classes to protect arms and chest of user.

The color for class 3 clothing differs for various occupations. Paramedics who respond to emergency situations put on green colored vests. For fire fighters, their color is red while for cops theirs is blue colored clothing. The reflective material in this category is high usually incorporating white or silver reflective strips to create high visibility. To improve visibility of such workers at night, some vests have been manufactured with LED or lighting materials.

Where does one get such protective gear? Some people may be wondering. This gear can be gotten from online stores or offline shops. There is usually a wide range of materials to choose from with different textures. One should however keep in mind safety and comfortability to choose from. These gears are also available at affordable prices.

The importance of safety vests cannot be overlooked as they protect people working in such risky jobs. They also increase visibility of such people and therefore productivity is ensured as workers will not have to worry about oncoming traffic at their back. This is not to say that workers should not take caution while working. Also employers should ensure that no employee is working without this gear.




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