New Changes Coming to ANSI Z535 Standards
Posted by Clarion Safety Systems | 15th Mar 2021
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535 standards committee recently met, with an agenda focusing, in part, on upcoming standards revisions and expected changes. This is an important U.S. group for visual safety communication as it’s in charge of the standards written for safety colors, safety symbols, safety signs, product safety labels, safety tags, and safety information in product manuals.
Our Continued ANSI
Z535 Leadership
Here at Clarion Safety, in addition to our
ISO
standards leadership, we’ve been members of the ANSI Z535 committee for
more than 30 years. In fact, our
company’s founder, Geoffrey
Peckham, was chair of the main committee for nearly a decade, from 2011-2020. Our
involvement in ANSI continues today through Angela Lambert, our director of standards
compliance, and her work not only as Clarion Safety’s ANSI Z535 delegate
representative, but also as the
chair
of the ANSI Z535.1 subcommittee. Angela was a part of the latest committee
meeting which was held virtually on February 17 and 18.
Upcoming Changes for the ANSI
Z535 Family of Standards
A major topic of discussion at this year’s meeting was the next revision of the
ANSI Z535 standards – a family of six standards – and expected changes.
“This is a key year for ANSI Z535, as the standards are due to be finalized at the end of 2021, and republished in early 2022,” Angela says. “The committee as a whole, as well as each standard's subcommittee, are working to define and refine the best practices related to communicating safety in order to help protect people from harm.”
ANSI Z535 Highlights and
Expectations
A few of the highlights from the committee meeting and
timelines/expectations for the standards include:
- Change proposals for each standard – including
‘global’ (encompassing all six of the standards) and standard-specific
proposals – were discussed at the meetings and will be reviewed and balloted on
this spring and summer.
- Four global change proposals were reviewed, all but one of which were proposed by Clarion Safety’s founder, prior to his recent retirement from the committee. Several of these are related to items which intend to harmonize ANSI Z535 with the ISO standards.
- While the ANSI Z535.1, ANSI Z535.2 and ANSI Z535.5 standards have no change proposals, the ANSI Z535.3, ANSI Z535.4 and ANSI Z535.6 standards each have proposals, many of which require significant discussion by the committee on whether and how to adopt.
- A new standard – ANSI Z535.7 – for safety information in electronic media is in development. Its scope is expected to include video materials, webpages, smartphones/tablets, and virtual reality.
Stay tuned as we bring you more news on the best practices and standards for visual safety communication. In the meantime, have a question about ANSI Z535 and how it relates to safety for your products or workplace? We’re here to help. Reach out to us today!