About Safety Signs
Safety signs are ubiquitous in all industrial workplaces, from fire safety signs, to lab safety signs and symbols, to signs for electricity, chemical and other hazards. A safety sign, however, has to have a certain composition in order to be an effective workplace safety sign. ANSI standards Z535.1 to Z535.5 specify which colors, wording, symbols or pictures, and size for all industrial safety signs. A safety sign, according to ANSIs regulations, needs to convey a message in this case, a potential danger or hazard and needs to be eye catching in case of an emergency.
ANSI defines a safety sign as a visual alerting device for a potential hazard, with each safety sign being made up of a few key components to convey this message effectively in an emergency. All industrial or lab safety signs need a signal word and a message panel or pictorial symbol in specific colors that alert and inform workers and observers of cautions, dangers, and hazards. The signal word is the first part of a safety sign that anyone sees and, as a result, it is the largest part of an industrial safety sign. The word itself indicates the degree and severity of the hazard, but, in order to be effective, the word has to be printed in or printed inside a field of a certain color. The color and word combinations are:
Danger and red. Both the word and the color need to signal an immediate hazard that can result in death or a serious injury.
Warning and orange. Warning printed in orange tells observers of a potential hazard that could result in death or serious injury.
Caution and yellow. Caution and yellow warns of a potential hazard that could cause a minor or moderate injury.
Green. Green is for safety equipment identification and can be used to label all safety equipment, first aid kits, and emergency egress.
The words themselves are printed inside the colored field in white or black, as long as the color stands out against the background.
Aside from the signal word, these industrial safety signs are always rectangular in shape and have vertical or horizontal wording. In addition to the large signal words, these safety signs can have certain accompanying symbols or pictorials and words in a smaller but still visible type face.
Not all safety signs are rectangular, however. Chemical safety signs, such as those indicating hazardous or flammable materials, are diamond shaped, as required by the Department of Transportation. These signs, which are colored red and white, are used to warn motorists of flammable materials in a shipment. In addition, to indicate the potential hazard of transported flammable materials, these diamond-shaped safety signs are given a number. Numbers given by the DOT range from one to nine, while the number system used by the National Fire Protection Association ranges from zero to four.
