Safety Labels: What to Put in Them, How to Write Them, and Where to Place Them

Constructing effective safety labels is a complex process. This chapter presents a few main stages of the process. The areas covered include what to put in safety labels, how to write them, and where to put them. The chapter talks about the identification of hazards, the specific layout and design of safety labels, and the differences between safety labels in the manual and safety labels on the product itself. According to standards, safety labels should contain a signal word, a hazard alert symbol, a specific color, a symbol or pictograph, a hazard identification, a description of the result of ignoring the warning, and a description of how to avoid the hazard. In addition, the safety label should be clear, concise, forceful, descriptive, and well‐organized. The chapter discusses ‘Specifications for Product Safety Signs and Labels’︁, ANSI Draft Z535.4, 1984, and presents sample safety labels from The Charles Machine Works, Inc. (CMW).