Few sections of people are as constantly exposed to sunlight as traffic police personnel.
Little has been asked about how the uniforms they wear while manning traffic control duties on busy roads can help them withstand health issues they face during their duty time.
Five prototypes of innovative traffic police uniforms designed by Sakeena Naureen, a final-year student at the Fashion Design Department of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) on its Kannur campus at Dharmasala here, are a fashion designer’s answer to the difficult conditions in which traffic police personnel work.
The innovative uniform designs not only have features such as more air vents to increase air circulation, but also have advantages of nanotechnology features to ensure ultraviolet protection.
“In existing cotton fabric, I experimented by applying nanotechnology and by ensuring design details, including more comfortable fits and utility spaces,” Ms. Naureen told The Hindu . As a result of effects of climate change, rising levels of extreme heat pose serious health risks and traffic police personnel will continue to face high summertime temperatures and will be under increasing UV radiation and air pollution, she said.
Uniform modifications included features such as air vents in the back pattern of shirt, sufficient number of pockets for storing bottles, night baton, reflective vests, note pads, pens, and torches.
With the help of her father, who is a scientist at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi, she applied nanotechnology with a mixture of two nano-composites to provide nano-finishing for ensuring UV protection features in the fabric.
“The key feature of the uniform redesign and development of a new fabric with nano-finishing is that it is very cost-effective,” said Manuprasad Mathew, who is Ms. Naureen’s project guide and head of the Fashion Design Department at NIFT, Kannur. Traffic police uniform has been selected for the project because traffic police personnel are among the sections that require UV protection garments, he said adding that test laboratory facilities were provided by the Cochin University of Science and Technology and CIFT.
