They’re not just for open water and boats

By Tom Griffiths and Rachel Griffiths

Life jacket, life preserver, life vest, personal flotation device (PFD)—no matter what you call it—the life jacket has a long and varied history. According to Christopher Brooks, in Designed for Life: Life Jackets through the Ages, the earliest example of a life jacket or floatation device can be found on marble carvings from 870 B.C., depicting Assyrian soldiers swimming while holding onto inflated animal hides. Brooks states the real innovation period for life jackets came in the 1800s during the transition from wooden ships, which tend to float, to iron ships, which were known to sink. Since that time, hundreds of life jackets and floatation-device designs and models have been developed and have made their way to the market. The terminology used to describe these devices has been troubling at best. For years, PFD was used to describe United States Coast Guard-approved life jackets, but today, when the public hears the term “floatation device,” it is mistaken for just about anything that floats, including rubber duckies and inner tubes. In a recent study (2019), parents reported using a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket for their child (ages 1 to 5) infrequently, even in open water.