Active luminous elements in the high visibility clothing and EU conformity assessment

Abstract

The insufficient, individual visibility of employees in various work environments and road traffic participants (e.g. in the night conditions, during bad weather), is still one the main causes of road accidents involving pedestrians, and collisions between people and machines. Both in professional and non-professional activities, the use of high visibility (warning) clothing and reflective elements seems to be the only way to increase the individual visibility of a human. A dynamically developing market of various types of non-incadescent light sources with small size, often flexible, emitting light with different colors and photometric parameters allows the application of these luminous elements to the warning clothing. The article presents examples of electroluminescent light sources (LED diodes, El wire, El tape, El panel) and optical fibers applied in the warning clothing. The analysis of the current detailed normative requirements and the legal status regarding the use of warning clothing with active light sources indicates that they are not sufficient to carry out the tests and EU conformity assessment of this type of protective clothing.