OSHA Floor Markings Colors and Its Meanings

Today, I would like to introduce a guest post by Mike Wilson from Creative Safety Supply. Mike enjoys blogging and reading about the lean manufacturing niche. He is invested in Creative Safety Supply, known for its safety products to help manufacturers with their 5S and Lean Projects. Mike is going to talk about the importance of 5S, specifically set-in order with floor marking to improve safety for employees.
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Factories, warehouses as well as other facilities in the industry are expected to know about the guidelines that are being imposed by the OSHA or Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is a government agency that has the role to ensure that workers from all over the country are working under safe conditions.

Their job is to come up with standards that must be followed by various facilities to boosts their 5s programs. One of these measures is the osha floor markings standards that aim to promote safety in the workplace by setting up proper safety markings.

About OSHA
OSHA is a government agency that works under the Department of Labor. Its task is to develop systems and standards to ensure the best benefits for the workers. In actuality, OSHA makes sure that their agents are scattered in various workplaces each day to take part in essential tasks such as measuring the railings of the stairway ensuring that it do not exceed even by an inch.

OSHA is serious about their job to prevent workers from getting involved in accidents as well as life threatening injuries. In order to meet up with the demands of the job, they habitually issue rules that will guide employers in creating and modifying their facilities to preserve the welfare of the workers.

The Color Scheme
Each safety line marking being promoted by OSHA corresponds to specific meaning. The workers should be able to employ these meanings in their safety markings and the employees must be able to have a comprehensive idea of these so that they can stay safe all the time while in the workplace. These are the following colors used in OSHA safety markings and their meanings:
• Red- This color signifies danger or a warning or some kind of limitation. Similar to the traffic lights, red tells you to stop as you may encounter hazards with heavy equipments, machines and power lines that can break your limbs or put your life in danger.
• Yellow- This is the usual color that you will encounter and it is considered as the basic color for marking tapes. It does not signify special meaning but it is widely used to catch attention or to make someone observe the safety marks.
• Orange¬- It also suggests warning but not as intense as red. It is mostly used for to caution you if you are near heavy machineries that can predispose you to accidents leading to injuries.
• White- This color does not have anything to do with warning. Instead, it is used to determine the appropriate storage areas for things such as benches and carts.
• Blue- It is a color used to caution against low levels of danger. It signifies that certain machinery needs repair and can be dangerous.

These are the most widely used color for safety line marking and those who are operating the business must stay aware and updated with the standards so that they can employ maximum safety conditions in the workplace.