1. The hazard severity level

2. Supplemental safety information in word or symbol form.

To communicate safety information across language barriers, all of the product safety label layouts shown in ISO 3864-2 use safety symbols alone or in layouts that use both symbols and words.

When a safety symbol alone is insufficient to communicate the necessary safety information, a layout that incorporates symbols and words should be used.

ISO 3864-2 is applicable to all products in all industries that may pose a safety question. However ISO 3864-2 does not apply to the safety labeling of chemicals or the transport of dangerous chemicals.

HAZARD SEVERITY PANELS (Signal Words):
For products there are 3 hazard severity panels which are denoted by the signal words: DANGER, WARNING & CAUTION. The 3 signal words are reserved for personal injury hazards. Choice of the signal word is based upon an estimate of the likelihood of exposure to the hazard and of the probable consequences of exposure to the hazard.

	DANGER: Indicates an imminently hazardous situation which, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. Safety Signs identified by the signal word DANGER should be used sparingly and only for those situations presenting the most serious hazards.
	WARNING: Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. Hazards identified by the signal word WARNING present a lesser degree of risk of injury or death than those identified by the signal word DANGER.
	CAUTION: Indicates a potentially hazardous situation which, if not avoided, may result in minor or moderate injury.

GENERAL WARNING SIGN:
Explain the meaning of the general warning sign. Then use this symbol whenever a safety related message is written that warns the viewer of potential hazards. Where literature accompanying a product refers to potential hazards the warning sign can be used alone or in combination with the proper signal word to draw attention to the nature of the hazard.

This is the general warning sign. It is used to alert the user to potential hazards. All safety messages that follow this sign should be obeyed to avoid possible harm

SAFETY SYMBOLS:
Explain the meaning of the safety symbols used on your safety labels. This enables the viewer to better understand the meaning of the graphics and makes future recognition of the safety symbols more instantaneous. Additional information may be added in your literature to further explain the meaning of each safety symbol.

Hazard Identification	Prohibition	Mandatory Action
A black symbol inside a yellow triangle with a black triangular band defines a safety label that indicates a hazard	A black symbol inside a red circular with a red diagonal bar defines a safety label that indicates that an action should not be taken or should be stopped.	A white symbol inside a blue circle defines a safety label that indicates that the action should be taken to avoid a hazard.

LAYOUT OF PRODUCT SAFETY LABELS

ISO allows the use of symbol only labels and/or safety symbols with supplementary text labels. When a product safety label contains a single symbol, the layout of the product safety label should use one of the surround shapes below.

USE OF PRODUCT SAFETY LABELS
Products generally require more than one product safety label to communicate both hazard identification and hazard avoidance information. As a result symbols are combined with the text message and hazard severity panels into one label.

COMBINATION PRODUCT SAFETY LABELS

	ISO 3864-2 Combination Product Safety Labels. Utilize a similar format to the ANSI Z535.4 2002 labels. They contain a signal word with an alert symbol in a hazard severity panel. The format also provides for a hazard symbol panel and a text message panel. The signal word selection is based on the severity of the hazard.
	ISO 3864-2 Product Safety labels are used internationally, therefore the language to be placed on the label becomes an important consideration if a combination style label is used.

Examples of ISO 3864-2 compliant combination product safety labels with hazard severity panels & signal words

*Layouts shown above are standard configurations for Brimar custom and stock product safety labels.

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MULTIPLE PRODUCT SAFETY LABELS

ISO 3864-2 2002 Standard allows for multiple symbols and text messages to be present on a single label with or without a hazard severity panel. If a hazard severity panel is used, it should be selected to correspond to the highest level of risk shown on the product safety label.

Examples of ISO 3864-2 compliant multiple product safety labels with and without hazard severity panels

* Layouts A & B are not standard templates currently offered by Brimar, but can be custom quoted.