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Business Upturn
24-07-2025
- Health
- Business Upturn
How to Select the Right Chemical Safety Sign for Your Facility
Keeping your facility safe begins with awareness—and that awareness often starts with clear, visible signage. Chemical safety signs play a vital role in communicating potential dangers and ensuring employees and visitors are aware of hazardous substances and proper handling procedures. Choosing the right signage, however, involves more than just picking a sign off the shelf. You need to consider your environment, the chemicals used, applicable regulations, and the needs of your team. Here's how to ensure you're selecting the right chemical safety signs for your facility. Choose the Appropriate Symbol and Message Chemical hazard signs are available in a variety of formats depending on the risk being communicated. These include warning signs for toxic, corrosive, flammable, explosive, and environmentally harmful substances. The symbols should be bold and easily understood without needing to read fine print. For example, if a room contains toxic chemicals, you'll need signage with the skull and crossbones symbol. You may also need custom wording alongside standard icons if your workplace requires more specific instructions. A wide range of toxic substance hazard markers is available to highlight the presence of dangerous chemicals. These markers help reinforce awareness and reduce the risk of exposure or accidental misuse. Understand the Chemicals on Site Before you can choose the appropriate signs, you need a comprehensive understanding of the chemicals used or stored in your facility. This means going through your inventory and identifying each substance, its properties, and associated hazards. Check the Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for each chemical, which include important information about flammability, toxicity, reactivity, and more. Categorizing substances this way helps you determine whether you need signs warning about corrosives, gases under pressure, oxidizers, or carcinogens, for instance. Comply with Legal Requirements Chemical safety signage in the UK is regulated by the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, which align with international standards. These regulations require employers to use specific signs when risks cannot be controlled through other means. Your signs should meet BS EN ISO 7010 standards, which ensure they use standard symbols and colors that workers can recognize instantly. Using signs that don't comply could result in confusion—or worse, non-compliance penalties. Always double-check that your chosen signage meets these legal benchmarks. Consider Placement and Visibility The effectiveness of a safety sign isn't just in what it says—it's also in where and how it's displayed. Chemical safety signs should be placed at all relevant access points, near storage areas, and close to workstations where chemicals are used. They should be visible at eye level, unobstructed, and illuminated if necessary. If your facility is large or has multiple floors, conducting a signage audit can be helpful. Walk through the site and check for blind spots or outdated signs that need to be replaced. Signage should also be reviewed regularly, especially when your inventory or processes change. Account for the Working Environment Workplace conditions can impact the durability and clarity of chemical safety signage. In harsh environments—such as those exposed to moisture, extreme temperatures, or heavy traffic—you'll need signs made from high-performance materials like rigid plastic, aluminum, or photoluminescent substrates for visibility in low light. In labs or clean rooms, consider signs that are easy to wipe down or resistant to chemical splashes. Adhesive signs or floor markers can also be used where wall space is limited or extra emphasis is needed. Keep Your Team Informed Even the most well-placed sign is only effective if your staff understands what it means. Incorporate chemical signage into your training sessions and safety briefings. Encourage staff to report missing or damaged signs and involve them in safety walk-throughs. Signs act as a last line of defense, reinforcing safe behavior and alerting workers to potential hazards they may otherwise overlook. Final Thoughts Choosing the right chemical safety sign is an essential part of creating a safe, compliant, and efficient work environment. From identifying the hazards present to ensuring visibility and durability, your choices can make a real difference in protecting your staff. By prioritizing correct signage—like clearly labeled toxic substance hazard markers—you'll be fostering a workplace where safety is always in sight. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Boston Globe
08-03-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
UMass Lowell to conduct study on PFAS exposure among construction workers
Related : Advertisement While PFAS exposure has been widely studied in professions like firefighting and chemical manufacturing, little research has focused on its specific risks for construction workers— Research involving human subjects is expected to finally begin in March if the team receives approval from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Dhimiter Bello, UMass Lowell associate dean for research and graduate studies in the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, outlined the three main goals of the project: identifying construction site products that contain PFAS, measuring PFAS levels in workers across various construction trades by collecting and analyzing blood, urine, and stool samples, and educating workers, industry leaders, and policymakers about the presence of PFAS in construction materials and ways to minimize its impact. Stephanie Stevens, a health communications specialist for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, stated that PFAS exposure in construction workers, especially painters and related trades, is not well understood, 'Therefore this research is intended to better understand these workplace exposures and to reduce or eliminate workers' PFAS exposures,' she said. Advertisement Bello explained that rapidly rising awareness about the risks of PFAS has shifted more attention to the so-called forever chemicals in recent years. 'The study of chemical hazards in construction typically lags behind other industries,' said Bello. 'Both from the standpoint of risk perception as well as a political response, deaths or dismemberment make the front page and are more traumatic for workers, whereas chemical hazards take time to develop into diseases—sometimes decades.' Bello said the project has already discovered the previously unknown presence of PFAS in several types of paint used on construction sites. However, he declined to name specific products or brands due to liability concerns. 'Compounding the issue, there is no way for workers or consumers to know which products contain PFAS. If you look at the Safety Data Sheets, none of them say they have PFAS in them,' said Bello. 'There is no way for anyone to look at a can of paint and say, this one has PFAS, how much of it, or what types.' PFAS contamination has become a growing legal and regulatory battleground in recent years, and lawsuits have targeted chemical giants like 3M and DuPont for 'Our goal is not to harm the industry or anyone. Our goal is to make those wonderful products safer for the workers and for the general public,' said Bello. Advertisement Nathan Metcalf can be reached at
