Clarion Safety’s Angela Lambert Is the New Chair of ANSI Z535.1

We have exciting news to share from the world of safety and standardization:

Our Clarion Safety team member, Angela Lambert, is the new chairperson of the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) Z535.1 subcommittee!

This ANSI standard focuses on the colors used in visual safety communication products like labels, signs and related safety markings. Angela, our director of standards compliance, has been a delegate representative for ANSI since 2016, and has fifteen years of experience in the field of warnings and liability. Her nomination for the chair position was announced earlier this spring and was balloted and confirmed this month.

In the chair role, Angela will determine other members of the ANSI Z535.1 subcommittee and head the ongoing process to identify and propose any needed changes to the standard, incorporating feedback from safety professionals and industry stakeholders.

The ANSI Z535 Family of Standards – and the Critical Role of Z535.1
In the United States, ANSI Z535 is the primary standards-making body for safety communication. The committee and its underlying subcommittees write standards that regulate the characteristics of visual safety markings that are used to warn about hazards and prevent accidents.

There are currently six standards under ANSI Z535:

• ANSI Z535.1 is the standard for safety colors
• ANSI Z535.2 standardizes environmental and facility safety signs
• ANSI Z535.3 focuses on criteria for safety symbols
• ANSI Z535.4 standardizes product safety signs and labels
• ANSI Z535.5 relates to safety tags and barricade tapes
• ANSI Z535.6 covers product safety information in product manuals, instructions and other collateral materials.
  

ANSI Z535.1 is an important foundational safety standard as it provides a uniform system for specifying colors that are used in the full series of ANSI Z535 standards. It addresses the technical definitions, color standards and color tolerances for safety colors. According to the Z535.1 standard, “Safety colors are often used to supplement a word message or safety symbol. The standardization of safety colors assists with the efficient development of safety information as well as assisting viewers in recognizing information as being related to safety.”

The Science Behind Color and Color Stability
Why do the colors used on safety labels matter? The correct colors are needed to be in compliance to national and international codes and standards related to safety signs and labels. These colors play a critical role in safety label effectiveness as they help the label to stand out from its background, whether it be a piece of machinery or equipment. If you’re using ANSI Z535.4 formats, colors provide people with a code, once learned, to understand the severity levels of the hazards your labels are meant to identify. As colors help identify hazards, they remain critical throughout a product’s lifecycle.

Clarion Safety and Standards Leadership
Angela’s chair role continues our company’s longstanding involvement of advancing safety standardization. Since our incorporation thirty years ago in 1990, our founder, Geoffrey Peckham, has led many of the key standards committees related to visual safety both in the U.S. and internationally.

“It’s a great honor for me to take on this leadership position for ANSI Z535.1, and to walk in the footsteps of Clarion Safety’s founder. Along with many other leadership positions within ANSI and its global counterpart, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geoffrey chaired ANSI Z535.1 for over a decade,” Angela says.

2020: An Important Year for ANSI Standards
The ANSI Z535 standards are set to be republished at the end of 2021. Over the next couple of months, each subcommittee, and the Z535 committee as a whole, will work towards defining and refining the best possible practices related to safety communication to ensure that people are better protected from injury. The process to identify and propose any needed changes to ANSI Z535.1 has already started. Change proposals are now being accepted by Angela, who will be responsible for addressing the proposal, facilitating ANSI’s process for determining if the change is to be incorporated into the standard.

Standards Compliant Safety Visuals to Effectively Warn of Hazards
As a company, we’re proud to continue to be at the forefront of visual safety communication. When it comes to Clarion Safety’s best practice products and color tolerances, rest assured that we operate within very tight color tolerance boundaries set by the ANSI and ISO standards. Our 30 years of standards expertise and leadership is applied to our entire portfolio of solutions, and that includes our line of quality custom items. You can rely on us to help navigate your workplace and product safety challenges. Reach out to us, and let us know how we can help better protect your team and reduce your liability risk. 

• Standards Insider