Emedco's Blog

If you work with machines or work in a building or area where machine safety is monitored, it is pretty likely you’ve heard of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and ANSI (American National Standards Institute). OSHA works to ensure the safety and health of workers by developing, enforcing and monitoring safety regulations across the U.S. ANSI, on the other hand, is a non-profit organization that oversees and coordinates a U.S.-based standardization and conformity assessment system.  

The main difference between the two organizations is that OSHA’s standards are enforced and companies can be fined for non-compliance, while ANSI regulations are voluntary (except when they are cited by OSHA).

Because of the way OSHA and ANSI interact, you will notice that machine hazard warning labels and signs come in various formats – OSHA-based and ANSI-based. While they communicate similar information, they are quite different in appearance.

Most people are familiar with the standard OSHA headers and formats. Knowing that, ANSI took OSHA’s format requirements and re-designed it in a way that they determined was easier and quicker to read and comprehend.

Here is an example of an ANSI machine safety sign/label.

What are the differences? One difference is that for ANSI labels the header consists of a triangle with an exclamation point. Other major differences are that the ANSI labels have a large symbol or pictorial in the center of the sign, a left justified message, and upper and lower case lettering.

Note the pictorial in the image to the right. ANSI felt that a pictorial was a fast, attention-grabbing way to communicate hazards. Also, pictorials can designate hazards across language barriers.

ANSI formatted products can be used not only for machine hazard communication, but for communicating other potential dangers as well. Consider this format next time you are purchasing safety signs, tags and labels for your facility.