All protective clothing needs to conform to certain EN (European Norms) safety standards to protect workers who are employed in a high-risk or hazardous environment. Anyone who works on a public highway, in a high fire or flame risk situation, will need specialist clothing to keep them as safe as possible.

EN Standards can be very confusing, so you need to know what to look for. First of all, if you need specialist work clothing or protective clothing for those at risk, you need to look very carefully at what you're buying and who you're buying it from. Flame retardant clothing is a pretty niche market and you need to buy from someone who knows what they are talking about. The term fire retardant as applied to organic (i.e. containing carbon) materials, might be better referred to as reduced fire hazard, as all will burn under certain circumstances.

You will see all sorts of symbols and codes written on labels, so which is correct? Well, the answer to that is that a lot of them may be correct as standards have changed. This does not mean that the old standard was incorrect, it simply means that the new standards will make clothing even safer.