Visual Chemical Safety The Picture: What Does This Add?
How do you “read” the pictures above? What are they telling you to do? What needs to be added or changed for your choice to be clearer?
Continuing to build our “word picture”, this is the intent of the above pictures, with discussion:
The first and second pictures are both intended to convey “Rinse off with water for 15 minutes if you get this on your skin. The first is an analog clock with 15 minutes marked off. The 2nd is a digital display of 15 minutes (taken from a picture of my microwave clock timer).
The 3rd picture shows both a digital and analog clock, in case some people don’t read analog clocks or vice versa
The 4th picture has the words “First Aid”, the previous 3 do not have words. I was concerned that without words, the big red cross might be interpreted as a Plus symbol instead of the international First Aid symbol.
What are your thoughts?
More next time as we add another route of exposure and continue to build on this theme.
Remember also, that in addition to telling the worker What to do, we need to tell them Where they can do it. So think about how you add the location of the nearest location at which they can rinse…
Our previous “starting point” example
The picture above was our starting point from the previous post, which translates:
For the product The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner (the same size and concentration you would find at your local Big Box store”
With respect to Skin Exposure (more understandable to a non-technical audience than the term Dermal)
The hazard to your skin is Moderate
Wear Nitrile Gloves (the blue ones that look like the picture)
That come in a box that looks like this
Ideally the next picture would show where the worker would get the gloves.
And ideally the gloves in the box would match the color of the gloves in the picture (the picture shows blue gloves, the box shows black ones)
Background:
Remember, the goal of Visual Chemical Safety is to convey the hazards associated with working with a chemical and how a worker can safetly work with that chemical to a worker where:
English is not their native language (or their native language is not the same as the document)
The worker doesn’t read or doesn’t read well
The worker has cognitive or other learning challenges
Over the next couple of days I’ll work through a synthesis of the presentations I did at the CSHEMA (pronounced SHEEMA, I was pronouncing it wrong) annual conference in Phoenix July 9-13, 2022.
The examples, while each will be stand-alone, will build on each other.
The following example is for one route of exposure. Then we’ll add first aid for that route. Then add another route. And so on.
Then we’ll address how to automate the creation of these from the Safety Data Sheet.
Community Outreach: Which of the 4 “rinse off with water” pictures would you use? Is there a different one you think would be better? Please reach out!
More next time…
