Why are exit signs and lights red

[Flash_11]

I currently teach health & safety and this question has been bugging me for some time. Safety signs as we know it are green (exit, 1st aid etc). They are green as it is the last colour you see as visibilty or sight impairment sets in.

So why are the exit signs on aircraft white with red writting and the over wing exit floor lighting red. Red is the first colour that diminishes in in the lights spectrum.

Any thoughts

Cheers

[SpannerTwister]

Many years ago all "Exit" signs (like in cinemas etc) used to be red.

At a safety course I did (very recently) we were told that they went from red to green as "instinctively" people avoid red, associating it with danger.

Maybe the aviation industry has yet to catch up ?

ST

[DitchSwitch]

You will discover that the “exit” sign has evolved even on aircraft from red to green.

Here is a photo inside the cabin of an A319:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Adria-Airways/Airbus-A319-132/1985715/L/&sid=d2129dccb1db68d32e783587aa9fc6cb


And the 787:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/files/library/tourflames.jpg

[Flash_11]

thanks for that, I guess Qantas and Jetstar carn't afford the new ones yets.

cheers

[SpannerTwister]

Probably more like Boeing don't have "approved" ones for current-generation airplanes ?

They are radioactive glow-in-the-dark, so it's not just like getting the Dymo machine out and printing up some new green ones........

ST

[givemewings]

To be fair, as recently as A380, red exit signs are still on aircraft.

Seems the 787 is just replacing 'exit/salida' with the international exit graphic...

I think it's also do with red being a "jarring" colour rather than green which can be 'relaxing'... ? Not forgetting that the lights are not only designed for use in smoke but in darkness/under water as well. Red stands out more in low visibility in green- by the logic that you menioned, if green means 'go'- shouldn't PAPI lights then be green & white rather than red & white?

Here's an interesting article on the "running man"

[givemewings]

Also, it occurred to me that perhaps the red exit lights signify 'be alert'- green might incorrectly make one assume that exit is safe- whereas red says "over here"- could it be based in (probably silly) legal world where someone was afraid of getting sued if green lights led to an unsafe exit?

[glekichi]

if green means 'go'- shouldn't PAPI lights then be green & white rather than red & white?

Probably not a good idea to give someone 4 green lights when they're dangerously low. Although, that said, train for it properly and it shouldn't make a lick of difference.

[Jamair]

glekichi - 4 x white means you're too high on approach path.....4 x red means you're too low.... 4 x green means you're REALLY low as the lights are now shining at you through the grass and it's about to get REAL noisy....

[baswell]

Better question is why are we still holding on to red and green at all?

10% of the male population can't tell the difference, especially if the shades are close or lighting conditions not optimal.

F***ed if I can tell the difference between L/R nav lights of an aircraft at night!

Even had to tell Shagpile off for a feature he added for the next OzRunways, telling him to change green to yellow so I could tell the bloody difference between on and off.

Some industries are catching up and some manufacturers are better than others. A few years ago, Olympus changed the single status LED on their chargers to red/blue. No I can tell the difference between charging and finished!

[Flash_11]

The story on the running man is an interesting one. Thanks for the link

[osmosis]

Baswell, simply because not enough of the decision maker phuckwits across industry are aware or even interested. Sh!ts me to tears.

[clark y]

Even the airport fire trucks are going green.
Our company also now dictates greenish hi-vis vests. Not orange ones.

[Worrals in the wilds]

IIRC some US Fire Departments started going green in the US about twenty years ago. Someone did some research and found that red was actually the worst possible colour to paint large, heavy trucks being driven through heavy traffic by lunatics on a tight deadline .

I can't remember the details, but apparently red is one of the hardest colours to see against a road surface because it's close to the end of the spectrum (or something like that ).

Thanks for the running man article, very interesting.

[moreflaps]

Seems to me that the use of green ignores a major concern, mainly visibility in the presence of smoke. Second having a running man is obviously sexist

One might even arge that having dimwits not know what the exit sign means assists "evolution in action". I never cease to be amazed how health and safety types really miss the point of human existence.

Cheers

[601]

The big taxpayer funded meeting house on the hill in Canberra have one of each.

Green in the House of Reps and Red in the Senate.

Apparently they had to move heaven and earth (OHS) to get the red light in the Senate.