A California mayor cites the public’s health as a reason to keep the ties at home.
By Alexa Lardieri, U.S. News
The mayor of the California town of Lancaster wants to forbid all city employers from requiring workers to wear neckties on the job.
Mayor R. Rex Parris asked the city attorney at a council meeting this week, according to The Los Angeles Times, if enacting a policy restricting employers from enforcing a tie-wearing dress code was possible.
[post_ads]Although it may seem as if Parris doesn't want to don the dreaded attire, he said enacting such a policy was in the interest of public health, the Times reported. The mayor cited a study published late last month that states wearing neckties decreases blood flow to the brain, which can hinder creativity and analytical thinking and pose a health threat.
The study, which was based on a small group of 30 men, half of whom wore ties, found that one-third of the men wearing ties experienced at least a 10 percent decrease in blood flow to their brains.
"I spend a lot of hours every week on an elliptical or a bike just to increase blood flow to my brain," Parris told the Times, "and it turns out every morning when I put on a tie I'm diminishing it."
If he can't forbid ties altogether, Parris told the newspaper he would at least like to see city employers make wearing a necktie optional. Presenting the tie requirement as a gender issue, the mayor reportedly compared it to demanding that women wear heels to work.
"I don't think it's appropriate in America today to make anyone do something that is now known to be detrimental to your health," Parris told the Times. "Especially if it's based on gender."
If Parris' policy passed and an employer violated it, they would be issued an infraction, which is why he has asked Lancaster's Criminal Justice Commission to see if this would be feasible. He also asked Lancaster's Healthy Community Commission to check the study's reliability because of its limited sample size, the Times reported.
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Parris, who said he "could buy a car" with all the money he has spent on ties, has worn them throughout his career as a litigator because a majority of courts require it of lawyers, the newspaper said. When he broke his hand and couldn't fashion a tie, he appeared in court without one and was reprimanded by the judge, he said.
Although the study doesn't explain how the decrease in blood flow affects brain function, poor blood flow to the brain can result in stroke, swelling of the brain, lack of oxygen to the brain and cerebral hemorrhage.
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