Calif. mayor wants to unknot necktie requirement

Californians aren’t exactly known for their stuffy workplace attire. Even so, Lancaster, California, Mayor R. Rex Parris wants to forbid all city employers from requiring workers to don the enemy of the casual wardrobe: neckties.

At a council meeting this week, Parris asked the city attorney to look into whether such a policy is feasible.

The proposal is a matter of public health, Parris said. Last week, the mayor came across a new study published in the journal Neuroradiology that suggests wearing neckties might lower blood flow to the brain. The study contends that restricting circulation by such an amount — 7.5 percent on average, according to the research — could have fatal implications for someone with high blood pressure.

“I spend a lot of hours every week on an elliptical or a bike just to increase blood flow to my brain,” Parris said, “and it turns out every morning when I put on a tie, I’m diminishing it.”

The mayor’s proposal comes at a tenuous time for the tie.

The late Steve Jobs’ iconic uniform of black turtleneck and blue jeans inspired many a think piece, and a generation of techies followed suit. In 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released guidance on gender identity and gender expression protections, which clarified that employers who enforce policies that require men to wear ties or women to wear skirts could be violating the law.

But the question of ties as a safety hazard has rarely entered the discussion.

Parris said he wants Lancaster employers to make wearing ties to work optional, at the least. He likened the tie requirement to demanding women wear heels to work.

Parris said he wasn’t sure how many Lancaster employers require neckties, but said city department heads customarily wear them to work.

Because the policy would involve issuing infractions to offending employers, Parris has asked the city’s Criminal Justice Commission to look into whether such a rule is practical.

For the necktie study, researchers at the University Hospital SchleswigHolstein in Germany scanned the brains of 30 men, half of whom wore neckties. A third of the men in the necktie group experienced at least a 10 percent drop in blood flow.

Because of the study’s small sample size, Parris has asked the city’s Healthy Community Commission to check its reliability.

The study does not explain how the 7.5 percent average decrease in blood circulation might affect brain function. But generally speaking, poor cerebral blood flow can lead to brain tissue death and result in stroke, hemorrhage and other conditions, according to Healthline.

This isn’t the first time neckties have gotten a bad rap. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Opthalmology showed that wearing ties too tightly may increase risk for blindness and glaucoma.