Being on the shore, water is ever present. That is one reason why water safety and making decisions to ensure people are safe around water is essential.
The Virginia Department of Health’s recent FB post about “safe” swimsuit colors is one piece of the puzzle. The other is the fabric patterns. As journo Amanda Ruggeri writes in How the colour of your swimsuit can save your life,
More recently, in May 2023, Alive released another test. This one looked at whether solids versus prints made a difference – key to know, since so many swimsuits feature fun prints and patterns. They found that the best visibility came from solid colours. Next best were very small printed patterns. But for larger prints, even if the base colour was bright, a print still affected visibility. When patterned with white stripes, fluorescent orange – which was the most visible solid colour – looked more like a reflection in the water. With dark stripes, it all but disappeared.
