Considerations for Developing a Consensus Standard for Safety Information in Product-Accompanying Literature

Abstract

At their most recent meeting, the ANSI Z535 Accredited Standards Committee considered the merits and practicality of developing a standard regarding the presentation of safety messages in product-accompanying literature. Subsequent to the meeting, the committee voted to form a new subcommittee, ANSI Z535.6. The purpose of this new subcommittee is to develop a new standard to complement the existing Z535 standards by dealing with various aspects of the provision of safety information in collateral materials such as manuals, instruction books, troubleshooting and repair manuals, etc. The present paper serves to provide an early notice to the human factors community of the ANSI Z535.6 standards-development activity. This paper also presents a preliminary analysis of (a) some existing standards, recommended practices and guidelines addressing safety information in various types of product manuals and (b) the ways in which safety information is currently presented in various product manuals.

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