Safety Signs

A Guide to British Standards & UK Legislation

BS 5499-1 Safety Signs including Fire Safety signs Part 1: This British Standard outlines:
1) How to use geometric shapes, colours and graphical symbols to create safety signs with specific meanings.

Geometric Shape	Meaning	Safety Colour	Contrast Colour	Graphical Symbol Colour
Circle	Prohibition	Red	White	Black
Circle	Mandatory	Blue	White	White
Equilateral Triangle with radiused outer corners	Hazard Identification: Danger/Warning/Caution	Yellow	Black	Black
Square/Rectangle	Safe Condition: Escape Route/Safety Equipment	Green	White	White
Square/Rectangle	Fire Equipment	Red	White	White
Square/Rectangle	Supplementary Information	Colour of the Safety Sign	Relevant Colour	Relevant Colour

3) How to use signal words on hazard safety signs. Where a signal word is used, it must have the meaning outlined in the standard.

Signal Word	Meaning
Danger	To indicate an immediately hazardous situation, which if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. To be limited to the most extreme situations.
Warning	To indicate a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, could result in death or serious injury.
Caution	To indicate a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, may result in death or serious injury.

4) How to use directional arrows (implies to all fire exit, fire equipment and safe condition safety signs.
a) The arrow to be used with an escape route sign shall be as illustrated in Figure 1.
b) The arrow to be used with any other safe condition safety sign such as a first aid safety sign shall be as illustrated in Figure 2.
c) The arrow to be used with a fire equipment safety sign shall be as illustrated in Figure 3.
d) The arrow to be used with any other safe condition safety sign such as a first aid safety sign shall be as illustrated in Figure 2.
e) The arrow to be used with a fire equipment safety sign shall be as illustrated in Figure 3.

2) How to combine safety signs with supplementary text.

5) How to calculate the size of safety sign you need:

Height of signs and maximum viewing distances
Max Viewing Distance (m)	Minimum Symbol Height (mm)	Recommended Letter Height Supplementary Text (mm)
7	60	5
9	80	7
14	120	10
21	180	15
28	240	20

BS 5499-1 Code of Practice for escape route signs
This British Standard:
1) Offers best advice on how to combine the BS5499-1 running man with text and arrows to produce a well designed escape route sign.

Progress forward from here	Progress down from here	Progress to the left from here	Progress to the right from here
Progress down to the left	Progress down to the right	Progress up to the left	Progress up to the right

2) Recommends the correct mounting position and location for escape signs.
?? Fire exit and exit signs, should be, so far as is reasonably practicable, evenly spread and consistently located at the same height so that the evacuee can quickly and effectively predict the location of the next sign within the escape route.
?? Signs should not be fixed to doors or sited where they may be obscured by open doors.
?? Signs sited on walls should be mounted between 1.7m and 2.0m from floor level measured from the base of the sign.

Smoke Free Regulations

In 2007 The Health Act enforced legislation throughout the UK which requires those responsible for workplaces to ensure that smoking is not permitted on their premises. There is also a requirement to display no smoking signs at entrances to premises and to convey a no smoking message to those persons on or entering the building. The minimum requirements for signage in the UK are as follows:

Premises ? Your sign must be at least A5 in area (210mm x 140mm) and contain a no smoking symbol (at least 70mm in diameter) along with the following text ?No Smoking. It is against the law to smoke on these premises'.

Secondary Entrances ? a sign which consists of a no-smoking symbol (which must be at least 70mm in diameter) may be displayed at entrances where it is only used by members of staff, providing the premises displays at least one A5 premises sign or if it is located within larger smokefree premises, such as a shop within a shopping centre.

Vehicles ? workplace / company vehicles must display a no smoking sign in each compartment of the vehicle. Your sign must contain a no smoking symbol which must be at least 70mm in diameter.

Premises ? Your sign must:
?? Be at least 230mm x 160mm in size, and contain a no smoking symbol which must be at least 85mm in diameter.
?? State that ?the premises are no smoking premises and it is an offence to smoke there or knowingly to permit smoking there' and,
?? Display the name of the person to whom a complaint may be made by anyone who observes someone smoking.

Additional signs ? If additional signs are required to make sure everybody on the premises is aware that smoking is not allowed your signs need to state that the premises are no smoking premises and that it is an offence to smoke there or knowingly to permit smoking there. These signs must display a no smoking symbol (at least 85mm in diameter).

Vehicles ? Signs must state that the vehicle is no smoking and that it is an offence to smoke there or knowingly to permit smoking there. It must also display a no smoking symbol and the holder of a particular post (e.g. manager) to whom a complaint may be made by anyone who observes someone smoking.

Premises signs ? your sign should be at least 160mm x 230mm in area and your no smoking symbol should be at least 85mm in diameter.

Vehicles ? workplace / company vehicles need to display a no smoking sign with a symbol that is at least 75mm in diameter.

The Health & Safety (Safety Signs & Signals) Regulations became law within the UK on 1 st April 1996.

The regulations implement the European Safety Signs Directive (92/58/EEC) which has been designed to standardise safety signage across Europe and ensure that with the free movement of labour, there is no risk of safety signs being misunderstood.

The Legislation:

?? Requires employers to use a safety sign whenever there is a risk that cannot be controlled by any other means.
?? Demands that all safety sign boards contain a pictogram as part of their intrinsic design features.
?? Increases the number of safety symbols.
?? Incorporates fire safety signs.

Use Health & Safety (Safety Signs & Signals) Regulation symbol designs when:

?? You want your safety signs to look exactly like the illustrations in The Health & Safety (Safety Signs & Signals) Regulations 1996.
?? You want your safety signs to reflect European designs currently in use.