Ansi 2007

Issue date: May 21, 2007
Rev. date: June 20, 2008
A Preview of the 2007

ANSI Z535.4 Standard for Product Safety Signs and Labels
By Geoffrey Peckham
President, Clarion Safety Systems
Chair, ANSI Z535.1 Standard
Member, Z535 Committee
Chair, U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 145
Introduction - Major Changes Are Coming
It has been five years since the ANSI Z535.4 Standard for Product Safety Signs and
Labels was last published and its new revision, with a 2007 date, is expected to be
published this summer. During this time, the field of safety communications has
developed on a global basis towards international approaches that establish common
worldwide practices. The good news is that the ANSI Z535 committee has taken the
necessary steps to keep their standards relevant for both national and international uses.
“Harmonization” was the key word used during the last five years of ANSI Z535
committee meetings and this concept, which means the melding of ANSI and ISO
standards where possible, formed the basis for many of the change proposals that were
accepted by the committee for the standards’ revision. This white paper will explore the
developments occurring in the 2007 version of the ANSI Z535.4 Standard for Product
Safety Signs and Labels so the reader will be better equipped to implement changes to
improve their safety labeling programs.
For product manufacturers, the ANSI Z535.4 standard is of critical importance because it
is used by U.S. courts to as the foundation for what is considered “best practice” for
product safety labeling. As such, this standard is a cornerstone for risk reduction for
product manufacturers. Employing the concepts presented in ANSI Z535.4 wisely and
the outcome should improve product safety and reduce product liability exposure.
Towards a Worldwide System for Safety Labeling
Over the past 18 years of developing safety labels for product manufacturers, the most
frequently asked question our company’s Standards Compliance Department receives has
been, “Is there a safety label format that can be used for both U.S. and international
markets?” The answer now is, “Yes.” The 2007 ANSI Z535.4 Product Safety Sign and
Label Standard will introduce a new era of safety sign design by officially recognizing,
and thereby validating, the ability to use the international ISO approaches to safety
labeling in the United States.
For the past sixteen years I have been an active member of the ANSI Z535 committee
and, since 1996, the chairman and Delegation Head of the U.S. ANSI TAG to ISO/TC
Clarion Safety Systems, LLC • 190 Old Milford, P.O. Box 1174, Milford, PA 18337 • ph (800) 748-0241 • fax (800) 748-0536
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©2007 Clarion Safety Systems, LLC All rights reserved • www.clarionsafety.com
145 (Graphical Symbols). During this time I have been significantly involved in moving
these safety signage standards towards harmonization. Over the past decade both the U.S.
and ISO committees have worked hard to develop standards incorporating concepts that
recognize a truly international approach to safety labeling. In 2004 the ISO standard for
product safety labels was published, ISO 3864 Part 2. As the primary author of this
document’s first drafts, I incorporated many of the key concepts that appear in the ANSI
Z535.4 standard; concepts that made the standard work and helped allow a safety label to
communicate its intended message. The real task was to create an ISO standard that was
flexible such that a manufacturer had the ability to choose from among a select set of
format options to choose one that would work best for their intended audience. The
Z535.4 concepts that made it into the final ISO 3864-2 standard include the use of signal
words and colored signal word panels to indicate various levels of hazard severity, the
use of safety symbols without surround shape and color, and the use of text messages in
“combined” formats.
The next task was to include ISO concepts within the ANSI Z535 standards. In
accordance with the revision process, I submitted ANSI change proposals with the goal
of harmonizing ANSI Z535.4 with the new ISO 3864-2 standard. Though debated, the
change proposals were accepted and the 2007 revision of the ANSI Z535.4 standard will
be known for the significant steps taken to meet global marketplace requirements.
Acceptance of ISO formats
The most important change occurring in the 2007 revision of the Z535.4 standard
is its acceptance of all label formats included in ISO 3864-2 as equally valid
choices as those formats contained in the Z535.4 standard. This change is
communicated in Section 3 of the revised standard with the following words:
“3.1.1 ISO-formatted safety signs

Product safety information may be conveyed by ISO formatted safety labels in
compliance with ISO 3864-2, Graphical symbols – Safety colours and safety signs – Part
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2: Design principles for product safety labels. See Annex C.”
This text sets the stage for the complete acceptance of ISO formatted safety labels on
products in the United States. Compliance with ISO 3864-2 is compliance with ANSI
Z535.4. In technical standards writing terms, the above text is called “incorporation by
reference” and it is the cleanest way to maintain conformance acceptance between two or
more standards. An alternative approach would have been to excerpt some of the sections
out of the ISO standard and place them into the ANSI standard. But this approach would
necessitate constant updating as the ISO standard goes through its periodic revisions.
The justification for this change in the Z535.4 standard, a change that resulted from a
proposal from Clarion Safety Systems (Clarion), was that harmonization with ISO was
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ANSI Z535.4 – 2007 draft, section 3.1
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necessary to keep the ANSI Z535 standards relevant in a world of rapid globalization.
Product manufacturers need the option to standardize on an international approach to
their safety markings and having conflicting standards in this area can result in placing
unnecessary restrictions on the ability to make a safer product available. The U.S. ANSI
TAG to the ISO committee in charge of ISO 3864 was successful in working with ISO to
adopt the DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION signal word formats and colors used within
the ANSI Z535 standards. Now it was the ANSI committee’s turn to reciprocate and
accept international formats if possible. And it did.
It is my belief that the significance of this change will be profound. Product

manufacturers will be able to consider several international formatting approaches for
their safety labeling and still be in conformance with the ANSI Z535.4 standard. There
are many factors which should be carefully considered before deciding which format you
will choose for your products safety labeling. Manufacturers now have the opportunity to
make choices that are best suited for their products, intended audiences and markets.
Clarion’s Standards Compliance and Design staff have the experience to assist you with
these important decisions and present your company with various formatting options for
consideration.
Examples of ISO 3864-2 Formatting Options
According to the international standard for product safety labels, ISO 3864-2: 2004, a
product safety label is defined as follows:
“3.9 product safety label

label on a product that informs the observer of one or more potential hazards and
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describes the safety precautions and/or actions required to avoid the hazard(s)”
Several formats are described that convey both the hazard description and hazard
avoidance information necessary for use on product safety labels.
Option 1: The use of symbol-only formats as defined by ISO 3864-1 typically use two or
more symbol labels to convey both items of content (hazard description/hazard
avoidance). See Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Warning sign, prohibition sign and mandatory action sign
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ISO 3864-2:2004
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Option 2: The use of symbols with supplementary text. Here text is either positioned
beside or incorporated into the symbol-based safety sign to communicate a more complex
message and reinforce the symbol sign’s meaning.
Figure 2 – Examples of the use of supplementary text
Option 3: The use of severity level panels. The use of symbols with a text message in
combination with a “hazard severity panel” is the option which most mimics the ANSI
Z535.4 formats used in the United States. Like the Z535.4 “signal word panel,” the
hazard severity panel is used to convey the level of risk associated with the hazard.
Figure 3 – Example a product safety label using a hazard severity panel
Similar to the ANSI Z535.4 standard, the ISO 3864-2 standard defines the hazard
severity panel (signal word panel in ANSI Z535.4) as follows:
“3.7
hazard severity panel
area of a combination or multiple product safety label that communicates the
category of risk associated with a hazard
NOTE: This panel contains the general warning sign, a signal word and the
3
corresponding background colour…”
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ISO 3864-2:2004
4
Figure 4 –Hazard severity panels - The yellow safety alert symbol incorporated in these hazard
severity panels is the general warning sign W001 specified in ISO 7010.
ISO 3864-2 incorporates the same DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION three-tier signal
word system for identifying levels of hazard seriousness (“risk” in the ISO vocabulary).
The same use of color as is found in the Z535.4 standard is used in the ISO standard for
each of the three signal words: red for DANGER, orange for WARNING, and yellow for
CAUTION.
Concerning harmonization of safety labels between ANSI and ISO, the ISO 3864-2
addition of nearly identical definitions for the signal words and the use of these signal
words in safety label formats represented a significant achievement and made the reverse
harmonization easier (ISO concepts back into the ANSI standards).
Incorporation of the ISO Version of the Safety Alert Symbol
In order to harmonize the ANSI Z535 formats with ISO 3864 formats, the Z535 standards
needed to recognize the “General Warning sign” version of the safety alert symbol that
was adopted by ISO as the only form of the symbol ISO would allow. The difference in
safety alert symbols was the only element that separated an “ISO 3864-2” symbol panel +
text panel + severity level panel format from an ANSI Z535.4 safety label that contained
a symbol, text message and signal word panel. The acceptance of the yellow ISO version
of this symbol as the safety alert symbol was absolutely critical for harmonization. And
this was done. The 2007 revision of the ANSI Z535.4 standard defines the safety alert
symbol as follows:
“4.10 safety alert symbol: A symbol which indicates a potential personal injury
hazard. It is composed of an equilateral triangle surrounding an exclamation mark. The
safety alert symbol shall not be used to alert persons to property-damage-only accidents.
(See Annex A.)
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A B C D E
Figure 1 — The safety alert symbol:
(A) for use with DANGER signal word, (white triangle, red exclamation mark
and red background),
(B) for use with WARNING signal word, (black triangle, orange exclamation
mark),
(C) for use with CAUTION signal word, (black triangle, yellow exclamation
mark),
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(D) and (E) for use with DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION signal words
(yellow background, black border and black exclamation mark. (E) has a yellow
border around the black border.)
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footnote: D and E are provided to allow for consistency with certain ISO
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standards, such as ISO 3864-1 and ISO 3864-2.”
Note that only the D and E versions shown above are allowed by the ISO standard. Also
note that the above definition and illustration appears in the Z535.2 Standard for
Environmental and Facility Safety Signs, the ANSI Z535.5 Standard for Temporary Tags
and Barricade Tapes, and in the new ANSI Z535.6 Standard for Safety Information in
Collateral Material. In this way, the new international look to the signal word panel has
the opportunity to be used in all of the visual safety communication forms covered by the
ANSI Z535 standards, in line with its growing use worldwide.
Figure 5 – Examples of the new safety alert symbol versions (on right)
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ANSI Z535.4 – 2007 draft, section 4
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As an aside, so you can better understand the standards-making process, the following is
the logic behind the discussion in ISO regarding the safety alert symbol’s design. In the
past, the ISO 3864 standard defined the symbol that consisted of a triangle with an
exclamation mark as the “General Warning Sign.” This sign was (and is) used to indicate
the risk of personal injury when no other specific safety sign exists to communicate the
intended message. The sign must be accompanied by other text or other symbols to
convey a safety message (i.e. it is too abstract on its own to communicate specific safety
information). When it came time to illustrate the use of signal words for product safety
labels, the ISO nations involved in the writing of ISO 3864-2 insisted that the triangle-
with-exclamation-mark symbol appearing in the severity level panel must be identical to
the ISO 3864-1 general warning sign. Given the committee’s prior work, this makes
sense for several key reasons.
- At the international standardization level, you should not have more than one
symbol for the same meaning.
- The combination of a specific color with a surround shape is key to the ISO
vocabulary of safety symbols. Yellow is always used for the triangular shaped
warning signs as defined by ISO 3864-1. Thus, allowing black or white triangle
versions would contradict this principle.
- A family of standards, such as ISO 3864-1 and ISO 3864-2, should not contradict
themselves by having differences in their key concepts
- ISO 7010 (the collection document for standardized safety signs) includes the
general warning sign and ISO 3864-2 does not differ from its proscribed symbol.
Revised Signal Word Definitions and a New Signal Word
After three years of committee discussion that reviewed over 20 years of debate, the
ANSI Z535 committee agreed to revising the definitions for the signal words DANGER,
WARNING and CAUTION and to adding a forth signal word, NOTICE for use in non-
personal injury related safety signs and labels.
The addition of the signal word NOTICE into the ANSI Z535.4, Z535.5 and Z535.6 came
about through a proposal I made first for the 2002 revision and again for the 2007 version
(which was accepted). Both times the justification for this change was that many
manufacturers desired to create more of a distinction for property damage signs than is
found between using CAUTION with the safety alert symbol or using CAUTION without
the safety alert symbol (which was the current practice defined in the Z535.4 standard for
safety signs and labels intended for warning of property damage only hazards). The
committee agreed and decided to phase out the word CAUTION without the safety alert
symbol for property damage safety signs by first incorporating the “preferred” option of
using the signal word NOTICE (also without a safety alert symbol) for this purpose, and
then noting that the use of CAUTION without the safety alert symbol will be eliminated
in the 2011 version of the standards.
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Figure 6 - Example of a safety label that uses the “preferred” signal word NOTICE
to address practices not related to personal injury
Figure 7 - Example of a safety label that uses the “alternative” signal word CAUTION
to address practices not related to personal injury
The preferred use of NOTICE and the alternate use of CAUTION without safety alert
symbols to address practices not related to personal injury also correspond with the ANSI
Z535.2 Standard for Environmental and Facility Safety Signs. The Z535.2 standard will
also eliminate the CAUTION without the safety alert symbol alternate option in its 2011
version, again with a goal of assisting to differentiate between safety messages indicating
personal injury and those related only to property damage.
All signal word definitions will undergo slight revisions in wording – revisions that were
made to make it easier to understand the differences between them. Revisions include
deleting the word “imminently” from the signal word definition of DANGER, and
deleting the word potentially from both the WARNING and CAUTION signal word
definitions. In essence, the definitions for DANGER, WARNING and CAUTION will
read “Indicates a hazardous situation” instead of “Indicates an imminently or potentially
hazardous situation”. The revised definitions are as follows:
“4.14 signal word: The word that calls attention to the safety sign and designates a
degree or level of hazard seriousness. The signal words for product safety signs are
DANGER, WARNING CAUTION and NOTICE. See Annex E for guidance in selecting a
signal word.
4.14.1 DANGER: Indicates a hazardous situation which, if not avoided, will result in
death or serious injury. This signal word is to be limited to the most extreme situations.
4.14.2 WARNING: Indicates a hazardous situation which, if not avoided, could result in
death or serious injury.
8
4.14.3 CAUTION: Indicates a hazardous situation, which, if not avoided, could result in
minor or moderate injury. It may also be used without the safety alert symbol as an
2
alternative to “NOTICE”.
4.13.4 NOTICE: “NOTICE” is the preferred signal word to address practices not related
to personal injury. The safety alert symbol shall not be used with this signal word. As an
alternative to “NOTICE” the word “CAUTION” without the safety alert symbol may be
used to indicate a message not related to personal injury.
Footnote: 2 it is the intention of the ANSI Z535 Committee to eliminate the alternative of using the signal word
CAUTION without the safety alert symbol to indicate a hazardous situation not related to personal injury in the
2011 version of this standard. This will assist in making more of a differentiation between safety messages
indicating personal injury and messages not related to personal injury.”5
One of the results of this change is that the ANSI Z535.4 signal word definitions now
correspond with their counterpart definitions within all of the ANSI Z535 standards
series. Furthermore the ANSI Z535.4 signal word definitions are nearly identical to the
ISO 3864-2 Graphical symbols – safety colours and safety signs – Part 2: Design
principals for product safety labels standard. ISO 3864-2 incorporates the same
DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION three-tier signal word system for identifying levels
of hazard seriousness (the term “risk” in the ISO standard instead of “hazard
seriousness”). Note also that the ISO standard does not include the signal word NOTICE
because the ISO 3864 standards only covers safety signs intended to communicate
information regarding hazards related to personal injury.
Addition of a Risk Estimation and Signal Word Selection Annex
A new annex titled, Risk Estimation and Signal Word Selection (Annex E in the 2007
ANSI Z535.4 standard) will be added to the ANSI Z535.2, .4, .5 and .6 standards. This
annex will be a valuable tool to assist in explaining the definitions and proper use of each
of the signal words with a risk estimation model discussion and illustrations. The scope
of this annex is as follows:
“E1 Scope
Signal words are selected based on the risk that results from not following the safety
message. The level or risk determines signal words, safety colors and whether or not to
use the safety alert symbol. This annex provides guidance for estimating risk and
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selecting signal words.”
Probably the easiest way to understand the concepts presented in this annex is to look at
the matrices that illustrate the signal word selection process shown below:
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ANSI Z535.4 – 2007 Balloted Draft Standard, Section 4
6
ANSI Z535.4 – 2007 Balloted Draft Standard, Annex E
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“E4.1 Signal Word Selection Matrices
The following matrices show the signal words, colors, and presence or absence of safety
alert symbol that are assigned for each combination of accident probability, worst credible
harm, and probability of worst credible harm:
Figure 8 – Risk Estimation and Signal Word Selection Matrix in Z535.4 Annex E
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This new annex also includes a “Signal Word Selection Process” flowchart which walks
the user through the signal word decision and selection steps necessary to determine the
appropriate signal word choice. In addition to the charts and matrixes, perhaps the best
feature of the new Annex is its straight forward discussion regarding what constitutes
serious injury compared to what is considered minor or moderate injury. The addition of
the new Annex, along with the simpler re-definitions of the signal words in the body of
the standards, makes the Z535 standards easier to understand and apply.
New Language Translations
The previous 2002 version of Annex D in ANSI Z535.4 had 16 language translations –
Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The 2007 revision adds
an additional 13 languages including Arabic, Czech, Estonian, Farsi, Hebrew, Hungarian,
Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai and Vietnamese. This annex is
intended for use by manufacturers exporting products from the United States. The scope
of this annex is as follows:
“D1 Scope
Translation of the signal words and word message are optional considerations.
These translations may vary by region and dialect. It is recommended that
7
translations be checked regarding their appropriateness for the intended audience.”
The 2007 Annex D revision will change what was referred to in the 2002 version as
“Chinese” to “Chinese Simplified”. The translation will remain the same. The 2007
revision will make spelling corrections to four of the 2002 signal word translations –
Greek, Japanese, Portuguese and Swedish.
It should be noted that when utilizing translated signal words for use within a safety
label’s signal word panel box for a product that is intended for export, the yellow ISO
safety alert symbol version should be utilized. As explained above, with the 2007
revision of the ANSI Z535 standards, this version of the safety alert symbol is now an
option for manufacturers to use for all of their products; domestic or exported.
Since thirteen language translations will be added to the translation chart, the font size of
the translations will appear smaller than the previous 2002 version. The electronic
version of this standard will allow for enhanced viewing of character details which
should be especially helpful with abstract languages such as Arabic, Chinese Simplified,
Farsi, Japanese, Korean and Thai. For this reason we encourage our customers to
purchase the electronic version of the standard rather than the printed version.
All of the signal word translations in Annex D have been verified by several sources
familiar with the translation of safety communications.
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ANSI Z535.4 – 2007 Draft, Annex D
11
Greek
Korean
Danish Spanish/English
Chinese Simplified German
Figure 9 - Examples of translated safety labels (note the use of the yellow ISO safety alert symbol
within the signal word panel – an ANSI Z535.4 2007 option)
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Addition of Translations for the new ANSI Z535.4 Signal Word “NOTICE”
The new ANSI Z535.4 signal word “NOTICE” (the preferred signal word to address
practices not related to personal injury) will also be translated in the 2007 revision of
Annex D. This signal word and its translations are not italicized in this annex. Both
italicized and non-italicized fonts are allowed for this signal word. The expectation is that
the ANSI Z535.4 and ANSI Z535.2 (Environmental and Facility Safety Signs) will
replace the italicized examples within the Z535 family of standards and show NOTICE
only in a non-italicized font in the 2011 revisions.
Spanish/English
German
Figure 10 - Examples of translated safety labels using the “preferred” ANSI Z535.4 2007 signal
word NOTICE to address practices not related to personal injury
Your customers and markets often determine whether or not the safety labels appearing
on your products need to be translated. Many manufacturers find that their compliance
consultants and international customers do not require translation as long as the product’s
manuals are translated into the language of the country in which the product is to be used.
Other manufacturers find that their customers, distributors and/or compliance consultants
insist that safety label be translated. Our company, Clarion routinely designs and
produces translated labels in virtually every language, both for products sold within the
United States and those that are exported.
Clarion frequently produces translated labels that include “derivative” translations such
as Canadian French, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chilean Spanish and others.
Translations may vary depending upon the intended market where the product will be
used reflecting different dialects within a language family. It is important to note that
dialect differences exist. The translation that is used should specifically address the
intended market. For example a blade or belt in European Spanish may have a different
translation than Mexican Spanish. Dialect differences exist in Europe, the U.S., Latin
America, Canada and other countries.
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English/French (Canadian)/Spanish (Mexican)
English/French (Canadian)
English/French (Canadian)/Spanish (Mexican)

English/French (Canadian)
Figure 11 - Examples of translated safety labels reflecting derivative translations
What the ANSI Z535.4 Revision Changes Mean for Our Customers
Clarion is committed to providing our clients with safety signs, labels and markings that
meet current standards and requirements for both U.S. and international markets. We
played a significant role in the 2007 revision to the ANSI Z535 family of standards –
making them usable by manufactures wishing to meet global market requirements. We
can bring this same high level of expertise to bear on your company’s specific needs with
regards to providing the finest in visual safety communications. Call us today: Our
knowledgeable staff is ready to assist you in reducing risk and protection people with
products that are developed to meet the latest standards and regulations.
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Ansi 2007

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Issue date: May 21, 2007

Rev. date: June 20, 2008

A Preview of the 2007

Introduction - Major Changes Are Coming

Towards a Worldwide System for Safety Labeling

Acceptance of ISO formats

“3.1.1 ISO-formatted safety signs

It is my belief that the significance of this change will be profound. Product

Examples of ISO 3864-2 Formatting Options

“3.9 product safety label

Figure 1 – Warning sign, prohibition sign and mandatory action sign

Figure 2 – Examples of the use of supplementary text

Figure 3 – Example a product safety label using a hazard severity panel

Incorporation of the ISO Version of the Safety Alert Symbol

Revised Signal Word Definitions and a New Signal Word

Addition of a Risk Estimation and Signal Word Selection Annex

New Language Translations

Chinese Simplified German

English/French (Canadian)/Spanish (Mexican)

Figure 11 - Examples of translated safety labels reflecting derivative translations

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