The 2007 No smoking legislation brought about big change for businesses, however this legislation doesn’t cover e-cigarettes/vaping. As there is currently no legal requirement to ban or restrict the use of e-cigarette smoking, businesses are taking their own stance on whether to allow employees and customers to use e-cigarettes in the workplace or while out socialising. With new concerns from health officials regarding the dangers of e-cigarettes the debate  has intensified.e-cigarette

Southern Rail have introduced a network wide ban to prevent customers smoking
e- cigarettes on their trains or stations. Southern Rail’s ban follows decisions by Govia Thameslink Railway, Transport for London, Chiltern Railways, ScotRail, South West Trains and East Midlands Trains and MPs have been banned from using them in their offices at Westminster.

The Public Health Bill proposed by the Welsh government planned to make it illegal to use electronic cigarettes in the workplace, pubs, clubs and any other public enclosed areas in order to dissuade users in the same way as the ban on tobacco. However the proposal collapsed due to a lack of support and the ban will be dropped from the future public health bill legislation.

Malta, Belgium and Spain all have similar laws in place with regards to e-cigarettes but the rest of the UK currently have no plans to introduce any bans. However, advertising has been targeted with investigations in to TV adverts being carried out and a total ban on any advertisement on social media.

For businesses wishing to prohibit e-cigarettes being used on the premises, Stocksigns has four electronic cigarettes signs available, allowing different combinations of regular no smoking and electronic cigarette permissions. These signs give visitors and staff clear instructions on your company’s policy regarding smoking.

No Smoking/Electronic cigarettes allowed sign. Advises staff and visitors that they can they cannot smoke tobacco cigarettes but electronic cigarettes are permitted.

Electronic cigarettes allowed sign. Advises staff and visitors that it is permitted to smoke electronic cigarettes in that area

No smoking and no electronic cigarettes sign. This informs that neither tobacco or electronic cigarettes is permitted. This sign is idea for front of building areas.

No electronic cigarettes sign. This sign is ideal for internal areas of your building. This will inform all that smoking e-cigarettes and vaping is not permitted.

Safety signs and symbols are important safety communicating tools, they help to indicate various hazards that present in plant site or workplace. At the same time, they warn workers to always keep watching out for those hazards by giving required information and safety instructions.

Safety signs and symbols do not only inform the presence of hazards, but also help create workers’ safety awareness. It is very important in reducing accidents in the workplace more obviously in maufacturing, heavy industry and on construction sites but also important in office based environments too.

To get the most out of health and safety signs and symbols, you should choose the right ones for each work location on your premises. Each work area needs different workplace health and safety signs and symbols. This is because each work area has different types of hazards. A risk assesment of each activity or designated area will help identify hazards. Appropriate actions for ensuring safety can then be drawn up and selecting the appropriate safety signs can then be selected. Where possible safety signs shown be changed (at least their location) to keep the safety message fresh and to avoid “sign blindness”.

Safety Signs and Symbols Standards

Safety signs and symbols consist of messages, words and pictorial symbol with variety of sizes, shapes and colours. All the shapes and colours are standardised. Each shape has different meaning and each colour reflects specific meaning.

Using standardised health and safety signs and symbols will make them understandable and overcome language barriers and the new ISO 7010 standard is the first step towards a global harmonization of safety symbols. More indepth infomation can be found at Safety Signs, Symbols and Colour Codes – a simple guide

Safety Signs – Shapes

The shapes of workplace health and safety signs are triangles, circles and squares or rectangles.

i. Triangles: indicates caution (potential hazards) or warning (definite hazards), for example toxic gas and electric shock.

ii. Circles: mandatory or recommended actions and are normally used to depict an action you must do, for example wearing eye goggles and safety hard hats.

iii. Squares or rectangles: shows information, i.e. general information and emergency information (first aid, fire fighting).

iv. A Circle with a 45° diagonal slash across the middle from the upper left to the lower right: points out forbidden or prohibited actions.

Safety Signs – Colours

The colours used in workplace safety signs and symbols are red, yellow, blue and green.

i. Red signs: designates areas for emergency devices like fire fighting equipment, or to emphasise unsafe or forbidden actions.

ii. Yellow: notifies workers to take caution and be alerted of hazards, reducing necessary risks.

iii. Blue: shows a particular action or behavior, for example instruction to wear personal protective equipment.

iv. Green: designates the location of emergency measures or equipment like first aid kits, evacuation routes, fire exits, escape ladders, or fire assembly points.

Safety Signs – Pocket Guides

Simple pocket guide with at a glance guide to the different colours and symbols used in safety signs make excellent reference material for workplace safety training and can be issued as part of new employee induction training.

A substantial body of research shows that using a hand-held or hands-free mobile phone while driving is a significant distraction, and substantially increases the risk of the driver crashing.

Safety Signs and Training for Drivers

Stocksigns offer a range of transport safety signs and driving resources to help protect your staff and fleet. As a working partner of RoSPA we are proud to offer access to RoSPA Fleet Training and consultancy as well as a host of traffic signs.

For more details on Driver Development courses, Advanced Driver Training and Driver Risk Assessment tools such as “Driver Profiler” please call us on 01737764764 for more information.

Prohibition Mobile Phone Safety Signs

The issue of drivers using mobile phones just won’t go away, government and police schemes to raise awareness of the dangers of mobile phones has failed to eradicate the problem. We have a range of safety posters and signs to help you look after your staff and fleet including prohibition signs, traffic signs, information signs and hazard signs. Visit our signs shop or order a catalogue to learn more.

Drivers who use a mobile phone, whether hand-held or hands-free:

  • Are much less aware of what’s happening on the road around them.
  • Fail to see road signs.
  • Fail to maintain proper lane position and proper speed.
  • Are more likely to ‘tailgate’ the vehicle in front.
  • React more slowly and take longer to brake.
  • Are more likely to enter unsafe gaps in traffic.
  • Feel more stressed and frustrated.

They are also four times more likely to crash, injuring or killing themselves and/or other people – RoSPA

The use of symbols and graphical images is a simple safety system used to convey safety messages at a glance. Colours and symbols appropriately used can provide information and warnings of hazards which are essential to safety at work, and in some instances may be independent of language.

The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 require employers to provide and maintain safety signs where there is significant risk to health and safety that has not been avoided or controlled by other means (e.g. safe systems of work) provided that the use of a sign can help reduce the risk. They also require, where necessary, the use of road traffic signs in workplaces to regulate road traffic. Employers must also ensure that all employees receive appropriate information, instruction and training regarding safety signs.  Although most signs are self-explanatory, some employees (particularly young or new workers) may be unfamiliar with the signs used.

What is a safety sign?

A safety and/or health sign is defined as information or instruction about health and safety at work on a signboard, a colour, an illuminated sign or acoustic signal, a verbal communication or hand signal.

A signboard is a combination of shape, colour and symbol or pictogram made visible by adequate lighting and which may have supplementary text.

What are the 4 types of safety signs?

There are four different types of safety signs:

  • Prohibition / Danger Alarm Signs
  • Mandatory Signs
  • Warning Signs
  • And Emergency

Each of these signs has its own colour with different variety of signs.

Safety sign colours

What do Red safety signs mean?

When a sign is Red, it’s usually a prohibitory sign that aims to grab people’s attention for a dangerous situation nearby, such as preventing people from smoking in an area containing flammable materials.

What do Yellow or Amber safety signs mean?

Similarly to traffic lights, yellow or amber signs send a warning to viewers, which is an indication to take precautions in the environment their in. This includes being in an area with dangerous chemicals, high voltage electrical equipment or even to be careful of the step on the street.

What do Blue safety signs mean?

Blue safety signs are mandatory signs which instruct people to undertake an action before proceeding. This could be wearing protective clothing,  keeping a fire door shutt, making sure premises are tidy and applying hand sanitiser.

What do Green safety signs mean?

Green safety signs are informative for the reader to signal safety, directing them to areas such as exit routes, first aid stations and assembly points.

What are combination safety signs?

Under ISO 7010 legislation safety signs can be combined to give multiple messages.

Combination sign

This sign gives a hazard warning (yellow) that the site is dangerous. It gives a prohibition instruction (red) that there must be no unauthorised entry and a mandatory instruction (blue) that a course of action must be taken – visitors report to site office.

These multi message signs are ideal for construction sites or garage forecourts where a combination of messages can be delivered in one place in potentially dangerous environments.

When are barrier tapes used?

Barrier tape can be used where the marking of dangerous locations is deemed necessary (e.g. highlighting the edge of a raised platform or area or restricted heights). They can be used internally or externally to help alert people of a hazard or danger.

We supply a range of different tapes such as reflective hazard warning tapes, self-adhesive photoluminescent tape, graphic barricade tape and pipeline identification tape. Please call a member of a sales team on 01737 774072 to discuss your tape requirements.

black and yellow hazard barrier tape

 

ISO 7010

Large elements of the British Standard BS5499 symbols have been changed since the introduction of ISO 7010. The basic principles of understanding safety symbols have remained the same i.e. colour and shape of out line symbol but some of the icons/symbols have changed.

For more advice contact our sales team on 01737 774072 or send us an email.

RED

Meaning or Purpose

Prohibition/Danger alarm

Instruction and Information

Dangerous behaviour; stop; shutdown; emergency cut-out devices; evacuate

Features

Round shape; black pictogram on white background; red edging and diagonal line; red part to be at least 35% of the area of the sign

An Example 

1440 Strictly No admittance safety sign

YELLOW

Meaning or Purpose

Warning

Instruction and Information

Be careful; take precautions; examine

Features

Triangular in shape ; black pictogram on yellow background with black edging; yellow part to be at least 50% of the area of the sign

An Example 

2813 - warning overhead cables

BLUE

Meaning or Purpose

Mandatory

Instruction and Information

Specific behaviour or action e.g. wear personal protective equipment

Features

Round shape; white pictogram on blue background; blue part to be at least 50% of the area of the sign

An Example 

mandatory-hard-hat-area

GREEN

Meaning or Purpose

Emergency escape or First Aid

Instruction and Information

Doors; exits; escape routes equipment and facilities Return to normal

Features

Rectangular or square shape; white pictogram on green background; green part to be at least 50% of the area of the sign

An Example 

Fire Exit sign with left arrow

RED (fire fighting signs)

Meaning or Purpose

Fire fighting equipment

Instruction and Information

Identification & location

Features

Rectangular or square shape; white pictogram on red background; red part to be at least 50% of the area of the sign

An Example 

Fire alarm call point landscape layout sign