No matter the industry, hazards are rampant in workplaces throughout the United States. Manufacturing equipment, conveyors, forklifts, slippery surfaces, and ladders are just some of the many hazards workers face on the job.
Given these risks, OSHA has developed guidelines for signs and tags that identify workplace hazards (29 CFR 1910.145). The important standard explains design requirements and informs employers when safety signs, labels, and tags must be used.
When the regulation was created, it aligned with the ANSI Z35 industry standard for safety signage. Today, OSHA's rules allow employers to use the designs that were originally described in this regulation, or the updated designs described in the most recent edition of the ANSI standard (now titled ANSI Z535). In addition to what's found in 29 CFR 1910.145, the ANSI Z535 standard offers additional information on safety colors, alert symbols, and pictograms.
Here's a look at how to keep workers safe, establish consistency throughout a facility, and follow OSHA's standard for safety signs (designed to be permanent fixtures in a facility) and tags (temporary warnings about immediate hazards).
"Danger" signs communicate the most serious workplace hazards; they communicate that an employee may die or sustain serious injuries if the hazard is not avoided.
OSHA offers the following basic guidelines concerning "Danger" signs:
"Caution" signs warn workers when they may experience minor or moderate injuries if they don't avoid the specific hazard.
Here's what OSHA has to say about "Caution" signs:
Safety instruction signs usually convey general messages, most commonly concerning health, first aid, medical equipment, housekeeping, sanitation, and general safety measures.
OSHA's standard maintains that safety signs should offer general instructions and suggestions for safety measures. For instance, these signs may point out emergency eye wash fountains and first aid kits.
Employers should use biological hazard signs to communicate the presence (or potential presence) of a biohazard. These signs should identify equipment, rooms, and other items that contain (or are contaminated with) biological hazards.
The standard says little else about biohazard sign design, but employers should take the following into account:
29 CFR 1910.145 outlines general design elements. Here are a few rules to consider when selecting safety signs:
Employers may occasionally use tags, in lieu of signs, for addressing temporary, unexpected, or unapparent hazards (such as when performing lockout/tagout procedures on a piece of equipment). Accident prevention tags are usually used temporarily-only until the hazard in question has been eliminated, or until the hazardous operation has wrapped up.
Here are a few guidelines for using accident prevention tags, as laid out in 29 CFR 1910.145(f):
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