| The Occupational Safety and Health Administration | | | | to be wide enough for both human and forklift |
| (OSHA), tasked with regulating and prescribing | | | | traffic to pass, with a few extra feet of |
| requirements and guidelines for the welfare of | | | | allowance so that it doesn't feel congested, or |
| employees all across America, may seem like a | | | | vehicles would be unable to maneuver properly. |
| daunting agency to satisfy, with so many | | | | Outside of those considerations, OSHA does not |
| different little things that one needs to get right | | | | even require that the floor markings be of a |
| for a company not to be in violation of one rule | | | | particular color. They have provided some |
| or another. It would be foolish to deny that OSHA | | | | suggested color codes for yellow and red, with |
| compliance can, indeed, become rather | | | | the former standing for caution and the latter |
| cumbersome. However, with regard to floor | | | | marking fire-specific equipment, but nothing |
| marking, OSHA is somewhat more liberal in its | | | | beyond these two colors. |
| approach. Industrial facilities have a significant | | | | And yet, if you were to walk into an industrial |
| amount of leeway as to the design and | | | | facility today, you may find floor markings in |
| arrangement of their work floors, though there | | | | orange, green, blue and even purple, on remote |
| are still a few mandatory issues that need to be | | | | occasions. Dissatisfied with the sparse information |
| observed. OSHA floor marking standards, by and | | | | that could be conveyed by the use of only two |
| large, are recommendatory in nature, though the | | | | colors, the American National Standards Institute |
| suggestions have been accepted and implemented | | | | (ANSI) devised a system of marking that made |
| with such widespread success that you may want | | | | use of other colors to convey other kinds of |
| to seriously consider adopting them. | | | | information. Their effective and practical color |
| The only OSHA floor marking standards that | | | | coding system was eventually promoted by |
| should be followed at all times are the need to | | | | OSHA, with such enthusiasm that many people |
| have floor markings in the first place, the | | | | mistake the ANSI standards as being original |
| dimensions of the floor markings, and the | | | | OSHA creations. The different colors cover such |
| pathways that they identify. They are based on | | | | identification concerns as the presence of safety |
| considerations of practicality. Certainly, having | | | | or medical equipment, the gauntlet of hazards |
| aisles and passages that encompass the length | | | | that a person faces in an industrial facility, from |
| and breadth of a structure would be useless if | | | | fire to being trampled by a machine, or even the |
| nobody could see where they were, so it makes | | | | locations of neutral, inherently harmless objects |
| sense to compel warehouses and factories to | | | | like benches and carts. When used diligently, these |
| mark them out. The guiding lines can't be so thin | | | | colors help to duly inform employees of what lies |
| that they can barely be seen, nor so thick that | | | | beyond the line perimeters, and to wear the |
| they actually decrease the available space by a | | | | appropriate protective gear, or simply stay away |
| substantial margin. Lastly, the indoor roads have | | | | from danger. |