Personal Protection Safety Products are designed to protect lives. Unfortunately, some High Visibility Apparel products, such as
safety vests and reflective clothing, in the marketplace are poor quality and are are most likely to be non-compliant with requirements such organizations as OSHA, MUTCD,
ANSI, NFPA, and ASTM. On two occasions in the past year one of our vendors was called on to prove thier products would, in fact, meet or exceed National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the American National Standards Institute (
ANSI) after an end user accident. Our safety vest manufacturer “Made in the USA” products were, of course, compliant. But these requests beg the question, “Why is this type of misrepresentation occurring in Safety Products now?” and “Who is held accountable when misrepresented, non-compliant products are a factor in an injury?”
A part of it lies with Price Pressure: Noncompliant products would never obtain any traction in the market place, except they are cheap. Again, we have heard other supplier’s stories of optical quality in Safety Eyewear so poor the user would have eyestrain in minutes, defective hardware that failed fall protection drop tests, and more. These stories ring true to us as we have seen first hand High Visibility Apparel with reflective that peels, fabric that fades or tears, broken snaps and zipper, and even a “Fire Resistant” vest that burned. These products simply cannot have passed the
ANSI and NFPA required 3rd party tests from accredited USA labs. A simple request to ask for proof of compliance BEFORE asking the price would have identified this misrepresentation immediately. It’s fine to ask for the best price. We all understand and want to get the best value for the money. Our vendors too negotiate the best price they can get on COMPLIANT reflective and COMPLIANT fabric. Then they manufacture the products to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to make a quality product at the best price they can. But our vendor, nor any other USA manufacturer, can not be “competitive” on price when the competition is using NON-Compliant materials, and are making NON-Compliant products in 3rd world countries where OSHA work rules do not apply.
As a “Made in the USA” manufacturer, our safety vest vendor is doing thier part to promote quality and compliant products. They participate in Industry Associations and Trade Shows, actively educate their Distributor Partners and End User Customers on the latest regulations, and provide numerous “Technical Briefs” on the requirements for High Visibility Apparel. As an ethical Safety Products Manufacturer, they present thier products as accurately as possible so visibility will not be a factor in the estimated 1000 people killed or injured in “Work Zone” accidents each year.
