White coat

Similar coats are a symbol of learning in Argentina and Uruguay, where they are worn by both students and teachers in state schools.

[citation needed] Like the word "suit", the phrase "white coat" is sometimes used as a metonym to denote the wearer, such as a scientist working in a high-tech company.

[1] In the nineteenth century, respect for the certainty of science was in stark contrast to the quackery and mysticism of nineteenth-century medicine.

[citation needed] Until the mid-1920s, students who were examining cadavers would wear black lab coats to show respect for the dead.

Anaesthesia allowed surgeries to be performed more slowly and precisely, reducing mess and bloodiness; white coats then developed a symbolic association with a bloodless field.

It originated at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine in 1989[9] and involves a formal "robing" or "cloaking" in white lab coats.

[15] Indian physician Edmond Fernandes triggered a controversy in India and parts of South Asia by calling for a ban on white coats because of the spread of nosocomial infections.

Short-sleeved lab coats also exist where protection from substances such as acid is not necessary, and are favored by certain scientists, such as microbiologists, avoiding the problem of hanging sleeves altogether, combined with the ease of washing the forearms (an important consideration in microbiology).

It is called such after a 1978 report commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Security to codify standard clinical laboratory practices, chaired by James Howie.