ANSI Z535 in Focus: Update from the Latest Committee Meeting – Including a New Leadership Position for a Clarion Safety Team Member

Clarion Safety and ANSI: Advancing Safety Together

Standardization in visual safety communication is critical in order to provide a framework for presenting safety and accident prevention information in a consistent, uniform way. The main standard for this in the United States is the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) Z535. ANSI Z535 makes up a group of six standards that focus on the formatting, colors and symbols used for safety signs, labels, tags and markings and how safety information is displayed in safety/instruction manuals.

The ANSI Z535 committee meets regularly on topics of interest related to writing the standards that govern the characteristics of visual safety markings that are used to warn about hazards and prevent accidents. At Clarion Safety, we’re proud to be involved at the leadership level in the ANSI standards or over 30 years, and to be able to share insight on the key initiatives as they happen.

Latest ANSI Z535 Committee Meeting Update
During the latest committee meeting, held in Orlando, Florida at the end of February 2020, talks centered on succession planning of ANSI Z535’s committee and subcommittee leadership positions. Positions currently open for the subcommittee include those charged with leading the ANSI Z535.1, ANSI Z535.4 and ANSI Z535.6 standards.

Other major topics included the next revision of the ANSI Z535 standards. In the coming months, each standard's subcommittee, and the committee as a whole, will take on the challenge of defining and refining the United States’ best practices related to communicating safety so that people are better protected from harm. The ANSI Z535 standards are due to be republished at the end of 2021. That includes the ANSI Z535.4 Standard for Product Safety Signs and Labels, the primary product safety label standard, which was last reaffirmed in 2017.

Clarion Safety Team Member Nominated for ANSI Z535 Leadership Role
As part of the succession planning discussed at the meeting, we’re proud to share that our director of standards compliance, Angela Lambert, has been nominated to lead the subcommittee for the ANSI Z535.1 standard. ANSI Z535.1 focuses on safety colors and how they’re used on warnings visuals. Angela has fifteen years of experience in the warnings and liability field, and has been a delegate representative for ANSI since 2016.

“In her role at Clarion Safety, Angela works closely with our product manufacturing and facility safety clients, guiding them on their label, sign and marking projects to ensure they’re in line with their specific needs and today’s visual safety communication best practices. Her work includes having a keen understanding of color systems and print production. With that background, as well as her previous active involvement in the ANSI and ISO standards in product safety at the leadership level, I’m certain she will excel at this role,” says our CEO, Ron Crawford.

Succession Planning for the Main ANSI Z535 Committee
Our founder and chairman of our board of directors, Geoffrey Peckham, has served as chair of the ANSI Z535 committee for the past eight years. In line with the committee’s succession planning, Geoffrey and vice chair, Paul Frantz, decided to step down and let others take on the committee’s leadership activities. Two long-time members and contributors to the Z535 committee — Steve Hall and Judi Isaacson as vice chair — have received the nomination as the next in line. Geoffrey will continue to be involved at the leadership level in both ANSI and ISO, where he is chair of ISO/TC 145.

Three Decades of Dedication to Safety
The open positions within ANSI Z535 are currently being balloted and confirmed according to the committee’s operating procedures. Stay tuned here on the Clarion Safety blog for more news on ANSI Z535’s leadership, as well as revisions to the ANSI Z535 family of standards. We’re proud to have been bringing you these updates on standardization efforts over our 30 years in safety. It’s an exciting time for our company as we, along with our industry partners, move into another decade of working towards reducing risk and protecting people — our passion.

• Standards Insider