Working in a safer workplace is for the good of everyone. High workplace accident rates impose costs, that are borne widely throughout the community

Globally it has been estimated that the costs of poor safety at work amounts to an estimated 1.25 thousand million US dollars every year. Even more gloomy is the 2 million workers who died as a result of work related causes.

It’s known that within US businesses, how a dollar put into safety initiatives returns three as a result of lower accident rates at work.

When it comes to improving safe work practices, there is a standard methodology of surveying hazards, reducing identified hot spot risks and then taking behavioral measures for the irreducible exposure . Safety signs slip into this latter task as the ever vigilant reminders of safe work. Safety signs by themselves don’t make a safer place to work – they just reinforce all the other actions

With the many types of safety signs they have been organized into groups around their severity . In order of ascending risk to human life, the sign groups are Notice, Stop, Caution, and Danger.

As our concern is to gain the biggest benefit improving on safety, we’ll just review the Danger and Caution hazard signs here. 

Caution signs mark safety hot spots where precautions need to be taken to avoid human injury or damage to equipment and/or the environment. Adhering to international criteria, caution signs are made with a yellow background and black as these are commonly accepted colors for caution – note the yellow for caution in traffic lights.

A caution sign’s safety message needs to be effective because no one wants injuries at work.

The danger safety sign means just that; a serious threat to life exists and failure to respect this sign will have serious consequences: perhaps even death. These signs are limited to the most extreme situations and are often found in manufacturing - industrial situations, where chemicals, heavy machinery and similar industrial hazards abound.

Safety signs can reduce workplace incidents in conjunction with other prudential measures - they are a sound investment.