The Impact of Colorful PPE with Pyramex®

With so many different PPE options available, and so many colors to choose from, how do you know what to pick? Why are there even so many different color options available? Turns out, color isn’t just used for decoration and a way to showcase your personality. Color is also used to help reduce accidents, lower confusion, and increase the overall safety of your team. Learn more about six important uses of color and the four product lines we recommend incorporating color into, below.

Use Color to Indicate Training Level and Roles

Incorporating colors into your PPE items such as hard hats and vests can help you differentiate your employees’ training levels. For example, all those with first aid training may wear a red hard hat, or those with a blue hard hat would know how to drive a forklift. You can also use colors to differentiate between those who are simply visitors, or those who may be employees or managers. Consider also using color to show the different employee roles or work areas on your site. Differentiating people like this can help minimize confusion as workers can quickly tell who to go to when they need help.

Use Color to Increase Visibility

We are sure you’ve seen hi-vis items. This is an extremely important use of color. Using bright hi-vis colors helps increase chances of workers being seen when working in low-visibility conditions, such as inclement weather or loud and crowded worksites. Another important use of hi-vis is in gloves to help workers keep an eye on their hands when handling dangerous materials or working with hazardous equipment.

Use Color to Identify Correct Cut-Levels

As you know, different tasks call for different PPE, in order to ensure workers are wearing the correct level of protection to keep them safe from the hazard they are facing. Many different tasks need different cut level resistant gloves and sleeves. For example, working in a warehouse will require a different cut level glove than sorting in a recycling plant or working with sharp blades. Using a color indicator on the glove or sleeve per the ANSI cut level can help you easily identify which items are the best option for the task at hand and can also help supervisors quickly identify if workers are wearing appropriate PPE.

Use Brightly Colored Glove Liners to Indicate Wear

After using a glove for a while, it will likely become covered with dirt and grime and begin to wear down. But how do you know when the glove is overworn to the point where it needs replaced? Using gloves with a brightly colored liner can help show you this, as when the glove becomes damaged or overworn, the liner will show, easily indicating that it needs to be replaced.

Use Alternating Colors to Signal Inspections

Like mentioned above, after using a piece of PPE for a while, its time will run out, and need to either be replaced or reinspected. Trying to switch out all old PPE for new may become confusing and hard to track, however, using a different color for the new PPE can quickly show what PPE is new and what PPE is still needing to be replaced.

Use Color to Avoid Errors and Foreign Objects

Something more common in the food and beverage processing industry is using colorful PPE that contrasts with the product being produced. As PPE such as gloves or hearing protection are needed in the production process, this can easily end up in the final product. Being able to easily identify any foreign objects in the product allows you to remove the item before it’s too late. Enter colorful PPE – a great solution as the color of the PPE can easily contrast with the food, allowing for quick and easy identification. The most common color used in the food industry is blue as there are none, or very little, naturally blue foodstuffs.

Now that you know six reasons to use colorful PPE, how do you know which items to incorporate the color into? We suggest using color in these four different product lines.

Hard Hats

Use hard hats to differentiate between different roles, training levels, and work areas. The most common colors used are white, yellow, blue, green, and red. Explore Pyramex® hard hat options >

Work Wear

Different work wear items can help you differentiate between roles and experience levels, as well as provide enhanced visibility options. Explore Pyramex® workwear >

Gloves

There are many different uses of color in gloves. Colors are used in coatings, liners, impact design, to call attention to fingertips and to alert workers to watch where their hands are. Explore Pyramex® gloves >

Eyewear

There are different reasons for the frame and lens colors. Frame colors can be used to differentiate work areas or for areas where color coding is necessary, while lens colors ensure relaxed and concentration vision by reducing glare or increasing contrast. Use this selection guide to help you find the right Pyramex® lens color that fits your needs. Explore Pyramex® eyewear options >

Looking for different PPE options? Shop all Pyramex® Safety.

Want help determining what PPE colors your team needs? Let's talk!