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Have You Really Trained Your Machine Operators (Jul/Aug-24)
Eye Safety & Safety Glasses (Jan/Feb-24)
Protecting Employees When Performing Machine Operations (Nov/Dec-23)
Protecting Students from Machine Hazards (Jul/Aug-23)
Electrical Safety (May/Jun-23)
Machine Guarding (Jan/Feb-23)
Have We Learned Anything About Safety Over the Last Fifty Years? (Nov/Dec-22)
OSHA Annouces 2021 Top 10 Frequently Cited Standards (Sep/Oct-22)
Have You Conducted Your Periodic Lockout & Tagout Audit? (Jan/Feb-22)
Workplace Violence (Jul/Aug-21)
Do You or Your Supervisors Really Care About Worker Safety? (May/Jun-21)
Creating A Safety Culture (Nov/Dec-20)
Before You Purchase New Machinery (Sep/Oct-20)
Do You or Your Supervisors Really Care About Worker Safety? (May/Jun-20)
OSHA Issues Interim Guidance to Help Prevent Worker Exposure to Coronavirus (COVID-19) (Mar/Apr-20)
Have You Recently Conducted Your Required Safety & Health Program Audits? (Nov/Dec-19)
Does OSHA Cite Employers Equally? (May/Jun-19)
Are You Ready For The New Year? (Mar/Apr-19)
Creating a Safety Culture Means Staying Informed (Nov/Dec-18)
Safe Lifting Techniques (Sep/Oct-18)
Are Your Machines Safe to Operate? (Jul/Aug-18)
Do You Know How Old Your Tires Really Are? (Jan/Feb-18)
Risk Assessment & Premise Liability Insurance (Nov/Dec-17)
Forklift Safety – You Can Save A Life Today (Sep/Oct-17)
Protect Your Employees from Heat Stress Related Injuries (Jul/Aug-17)
Lockout-Tagout from a Manager’s Perspective (May/Jun-17)
Do Your Employees Really Know How to Use Personal Protective Equipment? (Mar/Apr-17)
OSHA & Lockout/Tagout (Nov/Dec-16)
OSHA Increases Their Penalties Towards Employers (Jul/Aug-16)
Do You Know What Your Experience Modification Rate Is? (May/Jun-16)
Machine Safety (Sep/Oct-15)
Lockout, Tagout & Tryout – Are You in Compliance? (Jul/Aug-15)
Forklift Safety Practices (May/Jun-15)
Using the Right Power Saw to Cut Plastic Materials (Mar/Apr-15)
OSHA & Machine Safeguarding (Jan/Feb-15)
Ergonomics (Sep/Oct-14)
Respiratory Protection . . . Does Your Program Protect? (May/Jun-14)
First Aid Program (Mar/Apr-14)
Working with Composite Materials Safely and Preventing Dermatitis (Jan/Feb-14)
Preventing Winter Slips, Trips and Falls (Nov/Dec-13)
The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication – Are You Ready For It? (Sep/Oct-13)
Safety & New Employee Orientation (Jul/Aug-13)
Liquefied Petroleum Gas Safety (May/Jun-13)
Posting of OSHA Notices (Jan/Feb-13)
Staying Safe This Winter (Nov/Dec-12)
Personal Protection - Storage, Maintenance and Care (Sep/Oct-12)
Machine Safeguarding (Jul/Aug-12)
Is Your Lockout & Tagout Program Working? (May/Jun-12)
Getting Familiar with OSHA (Mar/Apr-12)
Is Your Piping Systems Properly Marked? (Jan/Feb-12)
Accident Prevention, Does Your Company Have An Effective Program? (Nov/Dec-11)
Defining FR – Flame Resistant Fabrics (Jul/Aug-11)
OSHA's Flammable & Combustible Liquids (May/Jun-11)
Safety & Health Program Check-up (Jan/Feb-11)
OSHA Is My Friend (Nov/Dec-10)
OSHA Standard for Control of Hazardous Energy Sources? (Sep/Oct-10)
Lockout/Tagout Program (Jul/Aug-10)
Safe Handling of Compressed Gas Cylinders (May/Jun-10)
What You Should Know about OSHA and Plastic Working Machinery (Mar/Apr-10)
Fasten Those Forklift Seat Belts (Jan/Feb-10)
My Back Hurts (Nov/Dec-09)
Fall Protection Program (Sep/Oct-09)
Accident Prevention & Investigation (Jul/Aug-09)
OSHA & Machine Safeguarding (May/Jun-09)
Carbon Monoxide Hazards (Mar/Apr-09)
OSHA Electrical Safety and Training (Jan/Feb-09)
Free Forklift ANSI Standards (Nov/Dec-08)
Worksite Fire Emergencies (Sep/Oct-08)
Machine Safety (Jul/Aug-08)
Ladder Safety (May/Jun-08)
Is Your Company on OSHA's Hit List?
OSHA Notifies Workplaces with High Injury and Illness Rates (Mar/Apr-08)
Safety Means . . . Never Having to Say You're Sorry (Jan/Feb-08)
Flammables and Combustible Liquids (Nov/Dec-07)
Designing-In Safety NOT Retrofitting Safety (Sep/Oct-07)
Back Safety and Lifting (Jul/Aug-07)
Machine Guarding (May/Jun-07)
Your Hearing Keep it for a Lifetime (Mar/Apr-07)
Light Up the Holidays the Safe Way (Nov/Dec-06)
Would You Risk Your Employee's Life? (Sep/Oct-06)
How to Control Workers' Compensation Costs (Jul/Aug-06)
Compliance with 70E Electrical Standards (May/Jun-06)
OSHA Is on the Move (Mar/Apr-06)
Workplace Violence (Jan/Feb-06)
The Aging Workforce (Nov/Dec-05)
The Safety Paradox (Sep/Oct-05)
Machine Guarding (Jul/Aug-05)
Effective Risk Management (May/Jun-05)
Safety Is Everyone's Business (Mar/Apr-05)
New Year's Resolution Safety (Jan/Feb-05)
Safe Driving (Nov/Dec-04)
Terror In The Skies Revisited (Sep/Oct-04)
How They Got Hurt (Jul/Aug-04)
In-Plant Air Monitoring & Analysis (May/Jun-04)
Safety on the Job and Complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act (Mar/Apr-04)
Link to Article Archive (Jan/Feb-04)
A Supervisor's Duty (Nov/Dec-03)
Machine Safety – Are Your Machines Safe to Operate? (Sep/Oct-03)
Summer is Here (Jul/Aug-03)
Working Safely On Powered Industrial Trucks (Forklifts) (May/Jun-03)
Does Your Safety and Health Workplace Program Contain All of These Elements? (Mar/Apr-03)
Methylene Chloride (Jan/Feb-03)
Safety Signs & Labels - Does Your Facility Comply? (Nov/Dec-02)
Indoor Air Quality (Sep/Oct-02)
When OSHA Arrives (Jul/Aug-02)
Facts About the Occupation Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) (May/Jun-02)
Workplace Fire Safety (Mar/Apr-02)
OSHA 300 Form (Jan/Feb-02)
Preparing for Disaster (Nov/Dec-01)
How Much is a Life Worth? (Sep/Oct-01)
Material Handling Programs (Jul/Aug-01)
It's Up To You To Protect Your Skin (May/Jun-01)
When You’ve Been Handed the Responsibility for Safety (Mar/Apr-01)
A Fresh Look at Machine Safeguarding (Jan/Feb-01)
Safe Work Habits (Nov/Dec-00)
The Importance of Material Safety Data Sheets (Sep/Oct-00)
Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (Jul/Aug-00)
Lockout/Tagout Program (May/Jun-00)
OSHA Violations, Citations and Penalties for 1998 (Mar/Apr-00)
Erogonomics and Machinery Safeguarding (Jan/Feb-00)
General Machine Principles (Nov/Dec-99)
SAFETY SOLUTIONS
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SAFETY SOLUTIONS: Safety Signs & Labels - Does Your Facility Comply?
When we recommend risk reduction to our clients, one of the items we tell them about is the use of color and signage to alert employees to potential hazards. Take for example a stop light. What colors are used to alert the driver of pending hazards? Red for stop, yellow for caution, and green for go are common and recognizable, right? What about the shape of signs and their pictographs? Yield, stop, caution all are common and easy to recognize, and the list goes on. A good practice for reducing hazards in your facility is to install and follow the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535 standards for recognizable signage.

According to the ANSI Z535 standards, a safety sign's message should alert viewers to the nature of the hazard, the consequences of interaction with the hazard and how to avoid the hazard. If information on consequence, avoidance or type of hazard can be readily inferred, the standards say this information may be omitted from the sign. But should you omit it? The old-style "HIGH VOLTAGE" sign only indicates what the hazard is. The sign does not tell people how to avoid the hazard. Should they stay clear or disconnect the power? Often too much is to be assumed by the reader.

ANSI 535.1 is the standard used to designate colors that alert people of hazardous areas. For example:

Aisles and passageways should be color-coded either with a white stripe or black and white stripe painted on the floor or columns.

Dangerous parts of machinery, i.e., rims of pulleys, gears, sprockets, inside of electrical cabinets, etc., should be painted orange.

The outside of machine guards should be painted yellow or yellow with black stripes to indicate caution.

Tape is perfectly acceptable according OSHA. You do not have to paint machinery.

The ANSI Z535.2 Standard for Environmental and Facility Safety Signs covers the field of signs typically posted on walls and doorways inside factories as well as those seen in public areas. The 1998 revision of the Z535.2 standard made the shift to establish the Z535.4 product safety sign format as the preferred format for safety signs.

The ANSI Z535.2-1998 Standard for Environmental and Facility Safety Signs is used to make safety signs In facilities more consistent with those found on equipment. This will bring the U.S. closer to achieving a single national uniform system for the recognition of personal injury hazards.

The new ANSI Z535.2 -1998 preferred format for facility safety signs chosen for this program is shown below. Over and above the addition of a graphic to communicate across language barriers, this format's word message conveys the information readers need to avoid the hazard.

The standard’s stated purpose is:

  • To establish a uniform and consistent visual layout for safety signs and labels applied to a wide variety of products;
  • To minimize the proliferation of designs for product safety signs and labels; and
  • To achieve application of a national uniform system for the recognition of potential personal injury hazards for persons using products.

The ANSI Z535.4 Standard is important to equipment manufacturers for two primary reasons. First, as the number of manufacturers complying with the Z535 standards grows, people will more easily recognize personal injury hazards before accidents happen. This should result in a lower number of product-related injuries and deaths. Second, the ANSI Z535.4 Product Safety Sign Standard gives manufacturers an officially recognized state-of-the-art benchmark for their product warnings. Before there was a uniform national standard for designing product warnings, manufacturers either developed their own signs or borrowed from the old safety sign companies. The result was a variety of safety sign designs, colors and messages.

This continues to be a significant problem since, in recent years, lawsuits based on "Inadequate Warnings" have replaced design defect cases to become the leading form of product liability lawsuit in the United States. Warnings that do not conform to the ANSI Z535.4 standard are more likely to be challenged in court as "inadequate." One of the intentions of this program is to provide equipment manufacturers with uniformly designed safety labels that comply with the ANSI Z535.4 Standard. Use of this program's standard and customized signs and labels throughout the machinery industry should strengthen your company's product liability defense.

ANSI Z535.4 can offer practical benefits for those preparing product warnings or developing company-wide hazard communication programs by streamlining the process. Limiting the need to consider a wide variety of formatting issues allows resources to be expended on other potential HazCom challenges that may be more relevant to the goal of promoting product safety.

In addition, from a product liability perspective, compliance with the standard may be viewed as evidence related to the "adequacy" of a warning in the event of "failure-to-warn" allegations.

Aside from these benefits, another potential reason for using this particular style of warning would be the expectation that it would reliably and significantly increase safe behaviors.

Meanings of Signal Words

DANGER - Indicates an imminently hazardous situation which, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. This signal word is to be limited to the most extreme conditions. The word DANGER shall be in white letters on a safety red background.

WARNING - Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, could result in death or serious injury. The word WARNING shall be in black letters on a safety orange background.

CAUTION - Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, may result in minor or moderate injury. It may also be used to alert against unsafe practices. The word CAUTION shall be in black letters on a safety yellow background.

Warning Features Specified in Z535

Safety Alert Panel Signal Word Panel

Panel with Word Message and/or Safety Symbol

The signal word panel and the exclamation point in the safety alert symbol would be printed in orange when the signal word WARNING is used.

For more information, click on the Author Biography link at the top of this page.

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