-->

Health and Safety Signs

Health and safety signs are used to provide visual aids in almost every working environment today, these safety signs come in all different shapes, colours and sizes and each has a specific safety rule or procedure attached to it.
Understanding the different health and safety signs whether it be hazard signs or mandatory signs is absolutely critical towards promoting a safe working environment for both workers and visitors. This is because quite a few of these safety signs do not carry a text based rule or command they instead display a simple illustration.
It’s practically impossible to visit any public building without noticing their health and safety signs on display, these are put in direct view of visitors or customers so in the event of an emergency their instructions can be easily followed. One of the most prominent safety signs you would find in most buildings would be the fire exit sign, this sign is used to point viewers to their nearest fire exit.

Types of Health and Safety Signs



Some of the most popular health and safety signs can be placed into these categories. Prohibition signs, mandatory signs, hazard signs, warning signs, floor signs and exit signs. Here are a few of the most common health and safety signs you’re likely to come across on a daily basis.

Mandatory Signs



Mandatory signs are used to imply that an action must be done, these include fire door must be kept shut, safety footwear must be worn, safety helmets must be worn, ear protection must be worn etc.

4 types of mandatory signs shown in a blue circle

Hazard Signs



Hazard signs are used to warn employees or visitors that a potential hazard is present, this includes anything that can cause physical harm to a person. These types of health and safety signs are triangular in shape and yellow in colour.

4 types of health and safety hazard signs

Prohibition Signs



Like the name implies, these health and safety signs are use to prohibit a person from carrying out a certain action for example the no admittance safety sign is used to tell employees or visitors that they should not go beyond a certain point.

4 red and white prohibition health and safety signs

Tips for remembering health and safety signs




The quickest and easiest way to remember the types of health and safety signs is to use the traffic light method.
Red – Stop, do not proceed
Yellow – Be prepared for hazard
Blue – This would be like police lights, you must do what they say

I hope this brief introduction into the different types of safety signs has made you more aware of how safety signs work and why it’s so important to be able to identify the different types of health and safety signs.

No comments:

Post a Comment

ShareThis