What size should my Health and Safety sign be?

A common question when trying to comply with UK health and safety law is “What size should my signs be?”.  For most of us choosing a size is not straight forward.

The most obvious answer is: “it depends upon the viewing distance from the intended sign”.

With this in mind I have come up with the following size guidelines when choosing your health and safety signs (using a standard fire exit sign):

Viewing distance up to 10 metres: use a small sign (300mm x 100mm)
Viewing distance up to 20 metres: use a medium sign (600mm x 200mm)
Viewing distance up to 40 metres: use a large sign (1200mm x 400mm)

When the signs are installed above doors ensure a 2m to 2.5m distance from floor level to the base of the sign.

When the signs are wall fixed ensure a 1.4m to 1.7m distance from floor level to the base of the sign.

Like I said, use these measurements as guidelines only and not as a hard and fast rule.

Most importantly fire exit and emergency escape signs should be, as far as possible, evenly spread and consistently located at the same height to ensure the evacuee can quickly and effectively predict the location of the next sign within the escape route.

Such signs should never be fixed to doors or sited where they will be obscured by open doors.

Legislation Update

The Health & Safety Executive launched a new simplified version of the Health & Safety Law Poster on 6th April 2009.

Employers have a legal duty, under the Health & Safety information for Employees Regulations (HSIER), to display the poster in a prominent position in each workplace or provide each worker with a copy of the equivalent leaflet outlining British health and safety laws.

British Standard Fire Exit Signs

The BS 5499 code of practice for escape route signing states,
1) That a fire exit sign with an arrow should be used where the escape route from a building is not conspicuous or confusion could occur.
2) All changes in direction in corridors, stairways and open spaces forming part of the escape route should be marked with additional signs.

Safety signs and Symbols Uses:

Do you want to know why Safety signs and symbols used for?  There are many warning signs and symbols that are used in many countries. By doing a simple search on various signs, you would learn more about the safety or warning signs. The purpose of writing this article is creating general awareness among the public people.

In some of the websites, they customize the safety signs and symbols for various resources.  There are different safety signs, which should be known to general public.  They are fire signs, warning signs, road sins, prohibition signs, general safety signs, hazard signs, security signs, disabled signs, security signs, first aid signs and information signs. However, these signs are commonly known to the people.

Every sign describes about its own uses. You would have seen these signs which are painted in red color. The red color symbolizes danger or warning. It creates the attention to the people, and they turn heads on to these symbols.

Here are few examples of safety signs and symbols. Learn more about these warning signs and symbols, and never abide the rules. In many places, do not enter symbol would have been placed. This indicates that these places are restricted, or the place has been used for maintenance purpose.

Like, this there are more signs such as No smoking, No dogs, No industrial vehicles, No swimming, No radios, No cycling, Do not use the lift, Do not use ladder, Not drinking water,  No unauthorized access, No cameras, No pedestrians, Switch off mobile phones, do not run and no children allowed.

Most of the people do not recognize the sign meaning, and it would be hassle for them as well as for others. They would get into trouble and to prevent from these situations, you should learn about the safety signs and symbols.

Every business, construction sites, hotels, hospitals, bars, cafes, restaurants, workplace  and organizations need these safety signs. All people should spend time in updating themselves in any general information.

For people to be cautious, alert, and warning these signs features a white background with a black symbol. Inside the symbol, there would be painted red circle or red signs.

NYC marks 100th anniversary of deadly factory fire
The centennial commemoration of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire became a rally for organized labor Friday, as hundreds marched and vowed to resist efforts to weaken unions in state capitals across the country.
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