Accidents are a common phenomenon at workplaces. Occupational hazards and general accidents can prove to be a major setback to both the employer and the employee as many workdays are lost and productivity diminishes significantly.
To prevent accidents at workplace, both occupational and general, OSHA (Occupational Safety And Health Administration) mandates employers to put up relevant safety signs that caution, warn and notify workers and visitors at a workplace about the physical and health hazards around them. These signs are also meant to educate workers on how to avoid the hazards and the necessary precautions to take when encountered with emergencies.
OSHA which is the federal organization in charge of the safety and health legislation enforcement has formulated designs for the safety signs in order to standardize the use of signs all throughout different workplace so that employers and employees both recognize the signs and respond to it quickly.
Standardized and uniform designs also shorten the response time when dealing with workplace emergencies.
Here we will see the typical differences that an OSHA safety sign and ANSI safety sign carry.
1. Header
The header in an ANSI sign or label has a triangle with an exclamation point whereas OSHA safety signs have only the signal word. For example, an OSHA sign will read Danger, Warning, Notice or Caution but without the exclamation mark (!).
2. Image
ANSI’s preference to pictorial in safety sign is probably one of the reasons they are used widely in different workplaces. Images call attention to the sign faster than standard signs without an image. Moreover pictures break the language barrier and help communicate the safety message to people of different linguistic capabilities.
3. Alignment
ANSI safety signs and labels consist of a large picture or symbol at the center and a left justified message.
These are the major differences one would find between ANSI and OSHA safety signs. Although both the signs are widely popular among employers, OSHA signs are preferred over ANSI signs because the latter is not recognizable by law and are agreed upon by a voluntary organization. Another reason why OSHA signs are preferred over ANSI safety signs is that OSHA may change or update an existing safety standard which would put employers in a dilemma to continue with the ANSI safety signs or choose the new signs in line with the updated or changed standard. A safe practice is to go with the OSHA signs but OSHA does not penalize business owners using the ANSI safety signs as long as they offer the same or more protection to employees as an OSHA sign would.
As an employer, you should make your sign buying decisions after fully understanding if that helps in significantly eliminating the possibility of a hazard and if it is consistent with the ongoing OSHA standard.