Originally Posted by ngdawg

Re: Why green is used in operating rooms(to clarify)Linky
Green, which signals nature and renewal, reduces nervous and muscular tensions, and refreshes tired eyes. It is used in operating rooms to counter the color red. It's often seen in libraries because concentration is easiest in a green, gray or blue environment.
Linky
In a paper that was written prior to 1920 entitled "The Green Operating Room at St. Luke's Hospital," Harry M. Sherman, M.D. reports the following research, changes, and conclusions:

Discomfort from glare in operating rooms was caused when the operator looks from the wound to somewhere else and then looks back at the less well illuminated wound - this renders the eyes temporarily useless.

Sherman, advised that the color scheme should start from the red of the blood and tissues, to a complementary color and chose green. Sherman recommended that green, should be used for floor and wainscoting. He selected the green of the spinach leaf - almost the direct opposite on the color spectrum as the red in blood and tissues. Once the floors and wainscoting were addressed he further went on to change the toweling - the draping of the patient/wound area. This was changed from white to green and/or black and then back to green or blue. Scrubs as we know them today were also changed in color.