Posted By Steve Holliday
Having never heard of this phenomenon before I have checked with the warehouse staff at my factory and yes this does seem to be an issue. In the summer months flies, and particularly small "thunder" flies, are attracted to high-vis clothing.

However all the staff I have spoken to are in agreement that this is a minor irritation compared to the prospect of being run over by an FLT or worse HGV, due to being stood n shadow etc.

I feel this is rather a blunt response to a classic case of misdirected priorities. If a tragic accident did occur I certainly would not like to have to tell the victims family (or enforcement officers) that the reason they were not wearing their high-vis clothing was because of a few flies! I shudder to think what the response would be.

Posted By Jonathan Breeze
Do orange hi-vis vests have the same effect I wonder?

Posted By Robert Whent
Experience I've had in major construction and railway infrastructure work, orange hi-viz is less attractive to flies and other creepies (except bees!)

If your staff keep moving the flies tend not to settle long and the irritation is markedly less than if they stand there and wait for the flies to land and get comfy.

R

Posted By Steve Sedgwick
10s of thousands of workers wear hi viz clothing every day.

There are always excuses for not wearing the required PPE, I can recall complaints of migraine and hair loss when safety helmets were introduced. Migraines and deteriorating eyesight when eye protection had to be worn.

Robert W has the answer " tell them to move now and again to disturb any settling flies" and refer them to the thousands of other people that wear these every day.
Steve

Posted By Steve Kirk
Hi Graeme,
We have a similar annoyance at our workplace,
We have 650 employees who nearly all wear the yellow vest, we intake around 10 trainees weekly who wear orange vests,
When they are outside the yellow wearers have a high "bug count", and the Orange wearers are very rarely affected.

Posted By Tony Campbell
I think Allan's solution is the one to look into as a viable option.

A trial with one or two vests of that colour, still being hi vis would not attract such creep crawlies!

Tony

Posted By Allan St.John Holt
I'm sure they do, Geoff, but to be honest I'm not bothered if they don't. Not to the extent of thinking too hard about the replacement cost of 160,000 of the little fellers, anyway.

They work, plus some of our people actually wear them....

Allan

Posted By Ken Urquhart
In response to Geoff Burts query:

See:

Guidance for Safer Temporary Traffic Management
Pre-Publication Draft
Workforce Issues
General
on:
www.highways.gov.uk/abou...pdocs/gstt_may_02/03.htm

High Visibility Clothing
Where work is carried out on or adjacent to a highway open to traffic, high visibility clothing complying with BS EN 471 should be worn by the workforce and the site supervisory staff. Clothing should be to Table 1, Class 2 or 3 (Class 3 on motorways and other high speed roads) and should comply with paragraph 4.2.3(b) of the Standard. In addition, on motorways and other high speed roads, jackets or coveralls with sleeves, which meet the requirements of paragraph 4.2.4 of the Standard, should be worn.

The colour of the clothing should normally be “fluorescent yellow” or “fluorescent orange-red” complying with Table 2 of the Standard. The retroreflective material used should be to Class 2 as defined in Table 5.

The clothing should be clean and in good order at all times

(This would perhaps suggest Geoff that the Red/Orange colour is also acceptable), especially as the original question related to an industrial premise rather than Highway/Motorway work.

Certainly in the "Olden Days" when Hi Viz clothing was first promoted in UK the original colour was Red/Orange. I am not sure if there was a legisltive or Standard requirement specifically but somewhere in the 1970's I seem to recall the colour was changed to Yellow but I can't for the life of me remember what the driver/motovator was for that change.
Having stated that on here though on this forum I am sure that we shall soon find out.



BSI, unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the Standard but the breif description of content etc is reproduced below.


BS EN 471:1994 Specification for high-visibility warning clothing Current, Work In Hand £27.00 £54.00

Standard Number: BS EN 471:1994
Title: Specification for high-visibility warning clothing
Abstract: Specifies requirements for clothing signalling the user's presence visually, in daylight and when illuminated by vehicle headlights in darkness.
Availability: Electronic Download (when in subscription) and Hardcopy
Subscription Modules: GBM07 (Occupational & Personal Safety), GBM55 (Trading Standards)
Status: Current, Work In Hand
Publication Date: 15 September 1994
Cross References: BS EN 340, BS EN 343, BS EN 530, CIE 15.2, CIE 17.4, CIE 54, ISO 105-A02, ISO 105-A03, ISO 105-B02, ISO 105-C06, ISO 105-D01, ISO 105-E04, ISO 105-N, ISO 105-X11, ISO 105-X12, ISO 2960, ISO 3175, ISO 3758, ISO 3759, ISO 4675, ISO 5081, ISO 6330, ISO 7854, prEN 1150
Pages: 20
Member Price: £27.00
Non-Member Price: £54.00
International Relationships: EN 471:1994 Identical


I do know from practical experience that personnel engaged on works at Sewerage Treatment Works and Industrial Waste/Landfill tip sites also suffer from annoyance because flies and insects are at particular times of the year attracted to the colours of the clothing.
Solution - just cope with it as the creepy crawlies did not cause any harm to the garment wearers.

I can just see the next BBC/David Attenborough Natural History spectacular - Here we see the phenomina of the purpose and function of colour in nature where these workers attired in safety hi viz yellow clothing are emitting signals to and attracting contact with etc etc.,

Anyway, hope this information is of some use and interest.

Regards.

ken urquhart

Posted By John Custance
Just for further conformation.

Yes orange Hi-Vis do meet BS.

I work in the rail industry and all rail operatives are required to wear them at all times.

It was probably there use by rail that lead to the introduction of the yellow hi-vo to enable differentiation between rail and operatives in other industries.

As an aside if you do supply your workers with orange hi-vis make sure thay never where them near the operational railway or if your site location is near the rail you may have to reconsider. As an example if you were wearing an orange hi-vi on a station and were standing on the trackside of the yellow line you see painted on the platform you sre then considered to be on or near the line. If a train comes into that station that then becomes a near miss. This probably is totally irrelevant but is worth noting perhaps.

Posted By marcey cross
On this subject does any one have any suggestions of alternatives to the high vis vests. Our employees have to wear these on site but we have a problem as they are not anti- static and we required to have antistatic clothing,equipment etc so shouldn't be wearing these vest .Is any one using an anti-static vest ? Can anyone suggest an alternative? Marcey Cross.

Posted By Danny Swygart
I have found a source for Hi-vis vests that are anti-entanglement (they have extra “poppers” down the side that will come undone releasing the wearer should they get caught up).

They comply with EN471 but I have only seen them in Hi-vis orange.

I think they would be ideal for Fitters / Maintenance personnel at our site (as long as they are not working near Railway lines, which could confuse Rail Traffic i.e. signal at danger).

They also seem to be shorter than the regular vests and may prove more comfortable to wear.

A side benefit would be the easy identification of Fitters / maintenance personnel (Hi-vis orange when the rest of the site is wearing yellow).

Has anyone got any experience of this product or can offer constructive advice as this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Danny.