
Hooded Sweatshirt Safety?
Anyone not allow hoodies or not allow hoods over head? Seeing it could be a visual hazard to equipment operators. Do you have an official policy?
Comments (5)

Wow. No I do not! But you see them everywhere! I was visiting my daughter and son in-law last week out in Utah. I noted my 14-year old grandson wears one all the time! Usually he has the hood down, but noted that he pulls it up sometimes especially if he finds himself in an unpleasant or un-comfortable situation. We had a Grandpa/Grandson talk about it. I told him my generation (Boomers) is very suspicious of someone wearing a hood for no apparent reason. This grandson is 6' tall and a good 220 and still growing (I was 6'4" at his age his dad is now 6'2"). So he is rather imposing and getting more so each time I see him. He told me all is friends wear them as he does. I counseled him to be very careful and consider his surroundings.

No official policy.
It's pretty common in my industry for people to wear hoodies. Really have seen an issue even with people operating heavy equipment.

At all of the manufacturing plants I've worked at, we had it as an HR policy that they could not wear hoodies at all or any type of jacket with drawstrings - it was part of the company dress code. It's no different than any other type of loose clothing that can get caught in machinery or other rotating parts, ultimately causing serious injury.
Even outside of manufacturing settings where you're not as worried about GMP and facility dress code, it could still pose an issue with hoodies over their head. While simply wearing a hoodie at a construction site or other similar work environment may not be too big of an issue, having the hood up over their head blocks their peripheral vision, so they may not see mobile equipment and other hazards as easily as if they had their hood down.
Unfortunately, I don't have access to any of those policies since they were HR, but they do exist.