Ill-fitting lab coats raise safety and inclusivity concerns

Whenever London-based cell biologist Jennifer Rohn joins a new lab, she finds herself being ushered over to a cardboard box filled with an array of lab coats. It’s then that she’s given her first task: to find one that fits.

But nearly all the lab coats available are too big for her, and the sleeves are too long, says Rohn, who is now at University College London (UCL). “Sometimes when you’re trying to do work, you have to roll up your sleeves, which kind of defeats the purpose,” she says.

Those challenges aren’t unique to Rohn. They’ve come up anecdotally time and time again in popular science comics and on various social media threads. And although there’s little data on the availability of well-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) in research environments, studies looking at firefighting and other occupations suggest the problem of ill-fitting PPE is widespread, especially among women. Those deficiencies have prompted efforts to address them.

A 2022 report by CSA Group, a product certification and standards organization, surveyed Canadian women across a number of specialized work environments and found that 58% of the respondents used PPE that was, at least some of the time, the wrong size. Nearly one-third didn’t always wear their required PPE and cited fit issues as the reason.

According to Imke Schroeder, a research project manager at the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety, not wearing PPE such as lab coats can expose researchers to a range of hazards. She points to the tragic death of University of California, Los Angeles, researcher Sheri Sangji, who wasn’t wearing a lab coat when the tert-butyllithium she was using ignited her clothes.

At the same time, ill-fitting lab coats can be a danger in themselves. If they’re too small, they can restrict a scientist’s movement and dexterity. If they’re too large, “you can catch objects with the lab coat,” Schroeder says. “That can topple them over.”

The latter is precisely what happened to Beau Wangtrakuldee, founder of AmorSui, a start-up focused on improving PPE, including lab coats. While she was doing an organic synthesis during her chemistry PhD, her too-big lab coat snagged on the reaction vessel, causing it to tip over and spill a caustic mixture of solvents and amides. The compounds burned through the garment’s inferior fabric and got onto Wangtrakuldee’s arms and legs.

It took Wangtrakuldee a few weeks to recover. She was then desperate to find a better-fitting, high-quality lab coat that would actually protect her in the event of an accident. But she was surprised when her search came up empty.

Years later, when Wangtrakuldee shared her story with a few female colleagues, they told her how poorly fitting PPE had contributed to their own lab incidents and near misses.

According to the Canadian PPE survey, 39% of respondents had a workplace event that they perceived to be related to their PPE. Clearly, Wangtrakuldee realized, making lab coats and other PPE that are suitable for women “is not a proper priority.”

Inclusive sizing and fit

It’s not just women who have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to lab coats, says Derek Miller, founder of Genius Lab Gear, another company rethinking designs for the garment. After surveying over 1,000 scientists, the firm found that the vast majority of respondents, regardless of gender, had at least one gripe about lab coat sizing and fit.

According to the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, one explanation about why badly fitting PPE has become a significant issue is that much of the measurement data used to design this equipment was collected by the military in the 1950s and 1970s. It’s likely that these data no longer represent all the body types in the modern workforce, which includes a much wider range of ages, genders, ethnicities, and disability statuses.

In acknowledgement of this discrepancy, some attempts have been made to increase access to well-fitting PPE in occupations outside the laboratory sciences. In 2024, for example, the US Department of Labor finalized a rule ensuring that construction workers have access to PPE that fits properly.

Being able to supply such PPE depends on companies creating inclusive garments and equipment in the first place. Yet from a manufacturing standpoint, it’s often easier and cheaper to stick to a narrow band of sizes. “There’s a reason most companies only do a small–3XL,” Miller says. “It's expensive to keep all the different SKUs [stock keeping units] around all the time,” he notes, referring to the codes that companies use to track their inventory.

Many PPE retailers also limit their selection to either men's or unisex versions. But women in other work sectors have said that unisex sizing doesn’t always function—it makes some garments and equipment too big in places and too small in others. So when it comes to lab coats, according to Genius Lab Gear’s survey respondents, scientists whose bodies don’t fit into these two sizing schemes are forced to roll up their overly long sleeves, pin back excess fabric, or forgo wearing their lab coat entirely.

To create a more inclusive range of sizes, Genius Lab Gear offers both a men’s and women’s version of its lab coats, with sizes ranging from XXS to 4XL. In addition, both Genius Lab Gear and AmorSui have included other design elements to improve fit even further, including knit cuffs and hidden adjustable belts.

These features “really elevate safety and comfort,” Wangtrakuldee says.

It also just makes scientists feel better about themselves when they walk into the lab, Miller says. According to his customers, wearing more-tailored lab coats makes them “stand up a little bit straighter, in that they feel more confident when they put it on,” he says.

As long as safety is the priority, Schroeder sees nothing wrong with also considering style and aesthetics. “Whatever makes them wear a lab coat, makes them proud,” she says.

More work to do

Schroeder applauds Genius Lab Gear, AmorSui, and other companies that are helping to enhance this essential piece of PPE. “I think it’s fantastic to be more inclusive,” she says. But even with these tailored designs, some scientists are still going to have trouble finding a well-fitting lab coat.

“My concern is always pregnant persons,” Schroeder says.

Rohn has firsthand experience with the difficulties of wearing a lab coat while pregnant. “I literally couldn’t button the coat,” she says. “Even the largest coat I could find would not go around my 8-month-gestation belly.”

In the end, Rohn just gave up and let the lab coat hang open. “What else was I supposed to do?” she asks. But she acknowledges that’s not necessarily an option for pregnant people working with more dangerous chemicals.

Miller first became aware of the lack of maternity lab coats after launching his initial lab coat survey. “If you search ‘maternity lab coats,’ you really won’t find anything,” Miller says. So he launched a second survey to crowdsource a design for one. He has developed the first prototypes and has sent them to some of the survey respondents. The current plan is to have a final design available to order by year-end.

Meanwhile, a team of researchers from UCL East is working to create lab coats for people who use wheelchairs, though this project is still in the early stages, says Jane Bolger, head of communications for the campus.

Lab coats are just one example of PPE that has fit issues: safety glasses and gloves are two others that Schroeder and Rohn mention. But maybe these small businesses will inspire bigger companies to start catering to their consumers, Rohn says. Or universities can start using these smaller businesses as vendors.

Either way, Schroeder says, “your employer has to provide appropriately fitting PPE.”