In both nature and human culture, color can send important messages. Birds often use bright colors to attract mates, while poison frogs use certain colors to tell predators to stay away. People have learned to use similar techniques to convey important information at a glance, like with the various colors of HAZMAT suits. Discover what the different colors of HAZMAT suits mean.

The Importance of Color in Safety

In the world of safety and compliance, specific colors are often used as warning signs. For example, OSHA standard 1910.145 App A recommends the following colors for different warning levels:

• Red: Danger
• Yellow: Caution
• Orange: Warning
• Fluorescent orange or red-orange: Biological hazard

People often use red to signify the most severe kinds of danger, including fire hazards and extremely dangerous equipment that could hurt workers. Yellow is an easy-to-recognize color that symbolizes caution. For example, when you see yellow tape on the floor of a warehouse, you should stay away from whatever the tape is marking. Essentially, if you see one of these high-visibility colors, be on the lookout for dangers.

Color Safety and Color Blindness

When you’re designing safety information using color, it’s vital to consider that some people don’t see a standard range of colors. If you rely too heavily on color alone, people who see in a different color range may have trouble benefitting from your safety signage. That’s why it’s always best practice to incorporate high-contrast text, shapes, and patterns—like stripes—along with color symbolism. Doing so ensures that everyone in your workplace has equal access to safety signage.

What Is a HAZMAT Suit?

HAZMAT suits get their name from hazardous materials. Basically, these are personal protective equipment (PPE) that you wear to protect yourself from hazardous materials, including:

• Chemicals
• Nuclear waste
• Human bodily fluids
• Toxic gases
• Pests (like bedbugs)

For example, a worker at a chemical plant might wear a HAZMAT suit while cleaning up a spill of chemicals that can burn a person’s skin. Someone working in pest control may wear a suit while cleaning up a bedbug infestation to avoid contaminating themselves. A researcher studying a contagious virus might wear a HAZMAT suit to prevent getting infected or spreading the virus outside the lab.

The Colors of HAZMAT Suits

HAZMAT suits can be all kinds of colors, depending on who is using them. While some colors specify very specific things, other colors are just meant to make the wearer visible. The loud, high-visibility colors of many HAZMAT suits can also serve as a warning to people to stay away from the area.

Some colors also match better with military and police uniforms. This color matching is important because it helps people determine who’s in the suit. For example, there are situations where it’s important to tell a police officer in a HAZMAT suit from a chemical plant employee.

How Color Affects Civilian Impressions

PPE designers should also consider how color can affect people in emergency situations. Researchers in Japan did a study in 2018 that showed how the colors of HAZMAT suits can impact people’s perceptions. They tested four colors—white, pink, ivory, and green—to see how color could affect anxiety and calmness in civilians dealing with a nearby radiation leak.

The researchers found that people consistently ranked different colors as indicating emotions like “tense” and “cheerful.” There are many safety reasons for choosing high-vis colors, but it turns out that they can also make people anxious.

Yellow Means Caution

When you see someone in a yellow HAZMAT suit, it’s a good idea to give them a wide berth. As previously mentioned, yellow tends to mean that you should use caution. These suits are also very easy to see, even for many people with color blindness. That makes yellow a more accessible color than some choices.

White HAZMAT Suits

In the United States, we tend to associate white uniforms with medical and research personnel. That’s because it’s very easy to spot dirt and debris on a white uniform. People who work in sterile environments need to be able to tell when they have some kind of substance on their clothes. However, you shouldn’t assume that a white HAZMAT suit means the wearer is a doctor. White suits are just a common color.

Silver Anti-Heat Suits

Silver is one of the least common HAZMAT suit colors you might see in your day-to-day life because silver fabric means that the suit is heat reflective. You’re not very likely to see a silver suit unless you live near an active volcano.

Camouflage Military Suits

As stated before, the military likes to use HAZMAT suits that blend in with their uniforms. Doing so ensures that people can still identify the wearers as members of the military. Sometimes, soldiers and other military personnel need to wear HAZMAT suits while out in the field. In these situations, high-vis colors might create unwanted risks.

Black HAZMAT Suits

Black HAZMAT suits are a semi-unusual color to see. For one thing, black is the color that absorbs the most heat from the sun, making it a poor choice for keeping the wearer cool. However, black does match most police uniforms, which is why you tend to see law enforcement officers wearing black suits.

High-Vis Colors

You can make HAZMAT suits out of almost any color you want; the main criteria is that the suits should be easy to see so people can tell who is wearing them. Orange, green, blue, and red are all common colors for HAZMAT suits. While the individual colors don’t mean anything special, they can help distinguish emergency responders from other personnel.

Using PPE To Keep Workers Safe

Now that you know what the different colors of HAZMAT suits mean, it’s time to explore suit levels. To help keep your employees safe, you can find chemical suits at TG Technical Services. We carry level A and level B chemical suits, which are the two most protective levels. Level A includes an airtight suit with chemical gloves, while level B is splashproof, though not airtight. TG Technical Services also carries chemical boots and gloves separately so you can prepare for any circumstance.

Never take chances when it comes to worker safety. Protect yourself while on the job with a HAZMAT suit, and always be sure to check OSHA regulations regarding the level of protection necessary for different emergency situations.