Today's workers are looking for the fits, features, and finishes of retail-ready denim but with proven flame-resistant protection.
Back in the mid-1800s, the news of gold being found brought more than 300,000 gold-seekers to California, and the gold rush boom in the United States served as the catalyst that propelled denim into the mainstream. Today, gold is doing it again, but this time it's black gold. The increase in U.S. oil and gas production in during the past decade is proving to be another catalyst for denim, and this time it includes flame-resistant denim.
Researchers at FracTracker.org estimate that there were more than 1.1 million active oil and gas wells operating in the Unites States in 2014, which is a significant increase over the approximately 774,000 oil and gas wells reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in 2004. This rise in the number of wells has resulted in a more than 50 percent increase in non-supervisory employment in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sectors. Although the recent trend in the price of crude oil has led to some contraction in the industry, the number of workers who need protection from the hazards of flash fire and electric arc flash remains at near-record levels.
Jeans have become a staple in every wardrobe, and the popularity and acceptance of jeans from the workroom to the boardroom have led to the rise in the number of fits and finishes available. According to several surveys, the average American owns seven pairs of jeans, which means that variety is a very important factor when it comes to jeans--including those worn for protection from flash fire and electric arc flash. But just because someone is wearing FR denim doesn't mean that he has to look as if he's just stepped out of a 1970s catalog. Today's workers are looking for the fits, features, and finishes of retail-ready denim but with proven flame-resistant protection.
NFPA 2112 is the Standard on Flame-Resistant Garments for Protection of Industrial Personnel against Flash Fire. It requires testing of a standard garment by ASTM F1930, a test method used to provide human skin burn injury prediction. NFPA 2112 dictates that FR fabrics must record no more than 50 percent predicted body burn after a 3-second exposure at 2 calories/cm2 or a total thermal energy exposure of 6 calories/cm2. Three garments are tested, and the average predicted percent body burn is reported for the FR fabric. While the data from this test should not be considered a prediction of performance in an actual flash fire incident, it may be used to compare different protective fabrics under a standard set of laboratory test conditions.
This article originally appeared in the March 2015 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.