Safety Posters In The Workplace

Occupational health and safety is high on the list of priorities of any workplace and to get that message across as a constant reminder this is made through posters prominently displayed in workshops, offices, anywhere where it can be seen by staff and visitors.

The message is kept simple.

Often there is safety training, or in some cases inductions. All workplace hazards are outlined in depth. The safety poster often reinforces these messages. The information on these posters may be brief, but it will remind people of keypoints of the occupational safety lessons that they've already learned. 

The safety awareness are often done as individual campaigns, you may have seen some of these at places you have worked at or visited: Electrical Hazards posters, Safe Lifting posters, Machine Guarding posters, Housekeeping posters, Ergonomics posters, Stress posters, Drugs & Alcohol posters, Protective Clothing posters, Fire Safety posters, Food safety posters and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA posters).

A poster is a placard consisting of pictures, words, or a combination of both and posted in some public place for advertising, safety education, or propaganda. Generally the original design for a poster is drawn, painted, hand-lettered, engraved, photographed, or produced by lithography and then reproduced in quantity. Posters are often displayed on walls and billboards and in subways, trains and buses, and show windows.

Because the attention of passersby Is brief and casual, posters are usually designed in bold print and with simple, striking pictures. To capture attention, designers often depart from a realistic style to create highly imaginative, sometimes abstract posters. Often such devices as double exposure, distortion, enlargement, retouching, and mixing of photography and drawing are used to produce dramatic impact and surprise.

Among the early counterparts to the poster were the inscribed stone tablets of the ancient Middle East and the painted announcements on walls in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The earliest posters in the modern sense developed with the invention of printing in the 15th century, By the 17th century, posters had come into general use and often used illustrations.

The pictorial quality of posters greatly improved after the invention of lithography by Aloys Senefelder in 1796. The first lithographic posters were printed in black. Those produced in the 1870's by the French painter Jules Cheret showed the effectiveness of color and earned for Cheret the title Father of the Poster. However, the first color poster to compare to modern examples was Frederick Walker's The Woman in White, which appeared in 1871.

Safety is the state of being free from danger, or the practices and procedures used to prevent accidents, as in water safety or traffic safety. In almost all human activities, whether at home, at work, or at play, the danger of accidents is present. Although modern man has learned to reduce many of the dangers of nature, technology and crowded urban living have greatly increased the possibility and seriousness of accidents involving such modern inventions as the automobile and industrial machinery. In the United States in recent years there have been between 90,000 and 105,000 accidental deaths annually. Accidents are the leading cause of death for persons under 35 years of age and are second only to heart disease as a cause of death in persons between the ages of 35 and 44.

Most accidents, with their resultant loss of life, time, and money, can be prevented. One means of prevention is to design roads, buildings, and machinery with built-in safety features. For example, roads should be planned with a minimum of sharp turns and other hazards, blades and gears on machinery should be shielded, and buildings should be as fireproof as possible.

Safety education is another way of preventing accidents. Almost all accidents are caused partly by carelessness, haste, fatigue, lack of foresight, or poor judgment on the part of human beings. These human causes can be reduced by the establishment and enforcement of sensible safety rules and by educating people about these rules and about ways to handle dangerous equipment safely.

Countless organizations and agencies promote safety through publications, educational campaigns and free safety posters. Foremost among them is the National Safety Council, which provides safety services for schools, industries, communities, and other concerned groups. Through the American Standards Association, management, labor, and government can cooperate in forming safety codes to be adopted by the states. Safety instruction is a regular part of training in most schools and industries and in some unions.

Many insurance companies publish booklets on safety education. And the federal government publishes posters and manuals on safety, and state governments administer and enforce safety codes.