One of the most frequently asked questions about safety signs is the ’emergency equipment sign meaning’ and whether the emergency equipment sign has a different meaning for each country, according to each own organization standards, especially in Australia.
In this review, we will discuss one by one the meaning of the emergency equipment sign according to each part in emergency equipment safety sign.
Starting from the meaning of the green background color to the meaning of the writing with white spelling above it or which it called with signal words. We will also discuss more further question whether the design of the ’emergency equipment sign’ must comply with the standards set by international organizations and Australia itself. And what can be apply in those type of safety sign
Emergency Equipment Sign Meaning
To understand the meaning of the emergency equipment sign, we can start dissecting it by looking at the background color of this type of safety sign. As we have previously studied in the article “What Does a Safety Sign With a Yellow Background Signify? Heres The Answer“, it turns out that the background color of each type of safety sign can have a very different meaning from one to the other.
According to the article, several major occupational safety organizations in the world have implemented different signs for the type of standard safety sign used. There are several colors that are often used as background colors for safety signs, namely red, orange, yellow, blue, green to red.
All of the colors that have been mentioned is proved to have a very different meanings and different functions. So, this time we will discuss further and more specifically about the color background of the type of ’emergency equipment sign’.
Green Color Background Meaning in Emergency Equipment Sign
The meaning of the green background used in the emergency equipment sign according to ANSI Standards is telling users about safety instructions or safety equipment location instructions. That standards actually not too much different from the standards used by America, ISO which is an international standard also has an agreement that the green color in the background of the safety sign means ‘safe condition’.
Meanwhile, according to the standards used by Australia, an example of using a green background color in a safety sign can be seen in the information about the ’emergency exit’ sign. The sign indicates that the green color in the ’emergency exit sign’ will indicate the location and directions that can be passed when looking for an exit.
In the articles on worksafe.act.gov.au, there is a little explanation that words or images that are on a green background must be white. Words or pictures that are above the background are called pictographs or signal words.
So, why does the pictograph or signal words from safety sign design with a green background have to be white? What is the goal and what is the international standard? Here is the discussion.
Meaning of White Signal Words Over Green Background In Emergency Equipment Sign
Have you ever thought why in one type of safety sign, the written words are allowed to use black colored words while others are only allowed to use white signal words. This time we will discuss more about this one problem specifically in emergency equipment sign.
According to various international organization standards that are still used today. According to ANSI, only two types of safety signs are allowed to use black signal words, namely for the background color of orange which means ‘warning’ and the yellow ones which means ‘caution or a dangerous situation’.
As for the red colored background which means ‘danger’, or in blue which means ‘health notice or information and mandatory action’, or even green which means safety instruction/safety equipment and safe condition, they only use white as the word signals.
When we have to referring in these standards, the white color in the type of ’emergency equipment sign’ indicates that the safety sign is used to address safety practices that are not related to physical injury according to ANSI.
Or it could also be interpreted as the aim of conveying messages related to work safety. According to ANSY, this type of caution safety sign should not be combined with safety alerts such as exclamation mark and so on.
The Meaning of the Geometric Shape of the Emergency Equipment Sign
After we discuss the background color and the color of the signal words used in this particular type of sign, now the final discussion will be the shape or geometry of the emergency equipment safety sign label itself.
Does the shape have to be rectangular or can it be changed according to individual wishes? The geometric shape of the emergency equipment sign is a square or rectangle that has a white border. This turned out to indicate that the safety sign was pointing a safe condition. Its usually used in several other type of safety signs like ‘first aid’, ‘emergency exit’, and ‘evacuation assembly point’.
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