The standard which defines these signal words in the US is ANSI Z535.4 (1998) - Product safety signs and labels. Here is the excerpt from that part of the standard:
"4.13.1 DANGER: Indicates an imminently hazardous situation which, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. This signal word is to be limited to the most extreme situations." "4.13.2 WARNING: Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, could result in death or serious injury." "4.13.3 CAUTION: Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, may result in minor or moderate injury. It may also be used to alert against unsafe practices." "NOTE - DANGER or WARNING should not be considered for property damage accidents unless personal injury risk appropriate to these levels is also involved. CAUTION is permitted for property-damage-only accidents. The safety alert symbol should not be used to alert persons to property-damage-only accidents." As far as international goes (IEC), it is my experience and after looking through the IEC dictionary, that only the term Warning is used. Keep in mind that there is a major push in many non-US countries (i.e., EU) to use symbology instead of text. If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know. Sincerely, Nick Momcilovic Product Safety Coordinator QTI N64W23110 Main Street Sussex, WI 53089-5301 USA Phone: +1-414-566-7915 Fax: +1-414-566-9576 mailto:nick.momcilo...@qtiworld.com http://www.qtiworld.com -----Original Message----- From: David Heald [mailto:davehe...@mediaone.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 12:02 PM To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Cc: ni...@tsd.serco.com Subject: [Fwd: User Warning Signal Words] Forwarded for Nick Martin. Please 'Reply All' and/or CC: ni...@tsd.serco.com when replying. Dave Heald EMC-PSTC Admin -------- Original Message -------- Subject: User Warning Signal Words List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 13:33:48 +0000 From: "Nick Martin" <ni...@tsd.serco.com> To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Hi List Can anyone help with the following regarding warnings to users and signal words User warnings normally use one of three signal words CAUTION, WARNING, DANGER. I believe that each of these increases the severity of the warning. Can anyone define any specific criteria for when a "caution" becomes a "warning" and ideally point to an IEC or other specification that provides guidelines on the use of these words? Or is my belief incorrect and the words are inter-changeable? thanks in advance for any answers Nick Martin Serco Test Systems ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server. ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server.
