This is the story behind the color that symbolizes safety and security at sea.
Safety orange (also known as blaze orange, vivid orange, OSHA orange, hunter orange, or Caltrans orange) is a hue used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast to the azure color of the sky.
You see it on flotation devices in swimming pools. You see it painted on traffic cones. You see it on those big signs that read ‘Caution’ or ‘Road work ahead’. To the untrained eye, the color you see is orange but for sailors and search and rescue crew know the hue by its more professional names: safety orange, blaze orange, vivid orange or if you’re really into this kind of thing, OSHA orange.
But of all the colors in the spectrum, why is orange the color of safety at sea? Why didn’t the world choose vibrant yellow, or bright green? Let’s take a deep dive into how safety orange became, well, safety orange.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND SAFETY ORANGE
The story of safety orange began in the 1950s. In the United States, it became the color standard in technical manuals and federal regulations. The hue was chosen for its effectiveness in setting objects apart from their natural environment. Especially against blue skies and seas.
During the time, a panel of experts discovered something interesting. They found that fluorescent orange was the most visible color for most people under the widest variety of conditions. The reason for safety orange’s high visibility? Well, it’s down to science. It’s down to how molecules absorb energy when exposed to certain wavelengths of light. UV-reactive fluorescence emits light in the presence of UV radiation. This causes a boost in our color perception, making hues like safety orange appear brighter and bolder to our brains. And that’s how safety orange came to dot our oceans.
A COLOR WITH A PURPOSE
It’s loud. It’s vivid. It’s attention grabbing. Safety orange seeks to jump out and seize your eyeballs, triggering your brain into a state of alertness. So it does its job of drawing your attention to incidents at sea, or even underwater. A searing mix of yellow and red, it’s a color with a purpose: to stand out and keep you safe. Safety orange highlights things that need protection. The color’s saturation helps our eyes identify people and objects as worthy of care.
