Hacker News

by Ryan Harman

Why Lab Coats Turned White (asimov.press)

50 points by mailyk 4 days ago

zabzonk 5 hours ago

When I worked in the NHS, our coats were far from white because we used to write on them, in magic marker, things like specimen numbers, doctors and nurses names, phone numbers etc. that we had to deal with queries about. I was always impressed that the laundry managed to get them pristine white again.

Of course this was just us sloppy men - female techs carried useful things like notebooks (paper) and biros.

And nowadays in the NHS you will be hard-pressed to spot a white coat - people wear ordinary clothes, scrubs, or nurses uniforms. At least that's my impression as a recent in-patient.

infinitewars 3 hours ago

Did you write on them because a notebook could cross contaminate while the coats are sterilized safely? Did you wash the markers?

I wonder how people handle this now? With IP68 tablets, you can probably just dunk the whole thing in alcohol.

(Also thanks for sharing such an interesting anecdote)

zabzonk an hour ago

No, after a couple of days (or even halfway through a day) our lab coats were about as contaminated as could be!

I agree with you about the use of tablets in hospitals though. I don't think I ever saw one being sterilised las time I was in hospital for a bit.

OJFord 3 hours ago

> And nowadays in the NHS you will be hard-pressed to spot a white coat - people wear ordinary clothes, scrubs, or nurses uniforms. At least that's my impression as a recent in-patient.

Yeah, they were banned in the name of hygiene (sleeve length) not that long ago. 2007 in England & 2014 in Scotland I think.

The BMA has some lingering objection to it from what I understand, but since Covid they're all in scrubs anyway. If they want prestige and distinction from nurses/PAs it would probably make more sense to do differently coloured scrubs, as they do in some US TV shows (but not all; no idea about reality).

clort 2 hours ago

They do this at my local hospital at least. There is a plethora of colours for different staff roles. I understand this is not consistent across the whole NHS but in general the principle is mostly followed. eg, see

  https://www.workwearexpress.com/blog/NHS%20Uniform%20Colour%20Codes

saltcured 2 hours ago

In modern times, as I understand it, there has been a complex trade-off.

The environmental impact of that laundry problem has been reduced but at the cost of 3M Corporation producing trillions of post-it notes that carry such tidbits of information around labs instead.

Mistletoe 2 hours ago

As a lab worker, what the hell? Post-its perhaps?

mock-possum 3 hours ago

> Of course this was just us sloppy men - female techs…

What an odd thing to say

infinitewars 2 hours ago

The writer is retired and probably in his 70s now, so keep that in mind

manarth 2 hours ago

manarth 4 hours ago 

    > "our coats were white because we used to write on them"
It's hard to tell whether this is a deliberately trolling statement, a fantastical Walter Mitty style statement, or something else.

Coats weren't white for anyone to write on, and clinical staff didn't routinely write on their clothes.

manarth 2 hours ago

NB: The original post said:

    > "our coats were were from white"
Which appeared to be a typo.

The understanding of the original post was "our coats were white because", which implied the purpose of the coats being white, was to allow them to be written on.

The post was edited to read:

    > "our coats were far from white"
Which has a very different meaning. Still questionable, but changes the context from "it was expected that we would write on our clothes", to "we wrote on our clothes".

zabzonk 4 hours ago

> Coats weren't white for anyone to write on, and clinical staff didn't routinely write on their clothes.

I wasn't a medic, I was a microbiologist. And I can assure you we did write all over them.

manarth 4 hours ago

xkcd-sucks 2 hours ago

I'm sure the article is broadly correct but in 3 separate academic institutions I've worked for in labs the assigned/monogrammed PPE coats were light blue, light red, and dark blue. Likewise my father in law's corporate research lab coats i've received as castoff gifts have all been light blue or dark blue

nabbed an hour ago

At one point, I worked in the labs division of a big internet company, where I was a regular software developer surrounded by people with the title "scientist" (basically, programmer/statisticians with PhDs who were running engagement and revenue experiments on our user base).

In the first group meeting I attended, I jokingly asked why no one was wearing a white coat, but my colleagues didn't get the reference, so my joke fell down with a thud.

icapybara 5 hours ago

So they can see spills easily

ErroneousBosh 4 hours ago

"It's just you've got mustard on your... right there, on the..."

hx8 5 hours ago

> The real driver of white lab coats was the hygienist movement.

This is a really compelling read with several historical sources, with a title that can be answered in a single sentence buried deep in the article. I'm a little sad to see such quality writing with a title that could be mistaken for a slop blog post.

the_af 4 hours ago

Well, you need a hook to get readers to start reading.

And it is an interesting article well worth the time spent reading it, so no harm done.

dvh 2 hours ago

Because of chalk?

ashwinnair99 4 hours ago

Never thought about this. The kind of question that sounds trivial until you actually try to answer it