Industrial Technology

Safety Issues - Suggested answers

The company had four serious breaches of the OH & S Legislation:

Failure to provide adequate training and instruction in the safe use and cleaning of the machine and to supervise the worker.
Failure to instruct the worker not to clean the machine until he had received training.
Failure to provide work practices that limited the risk to health and safety.
Failure to provide adequate safety information signage warning of the dangers related to the use and cleaning of the machine.

What do you understand each of these signs to mean?
1. Wheelchair access
2. No smoking
3. Electrical hazard or danger of electrocution
4. First aid
5. Corrosive substance
6. No entry.
What are three design elements that help to make the meaning of these signs clear?
1. The use of standard colours, e.g. red, yellow and black for warning signs and blue for information
2. Graphics to represent ideas instead of words so that they can be understood by people of all languages
3. The use of standard shapes to emphasise the purpose of the sign, e.g. triangles and circles for warning and rectangles for information.