ICEL releases technical statement on Emergency Exit “Clear” Signs

ICEL Technical Statement No. 1 – Emergency Exit “Clear” Signs

As an accredited ICEL member, Channel Safety Systems has reviewed the latest technical statement and ensured that its emergency exit products are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements, please review the technical statement as detailed in this article – should you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.

It is not enough that a safety sign can be seen. It is essential that each sign is quickly understood and that an installation of signs quickly and clearly conveys their intention and continues to confirm the message.

Research has identified that the key requirements for an acceptable safety sign are:-

Conspicuity: The capacity of a sign to stand out or be distinguishable from its surroundings and thus be readily discovered by the eye. It is the noticeable contrast between a sign and its background, attributed to an exogenous (unplanned) or andogenous (planned) mind-set, with the display having features that attract attention to the sign. Conspicuity is considered a subjective outcome.

Visibility: The physical attributes of a sign and its contents that allow for detection at a given distance, although legibility may be uncertain. Visibility is considered an objective stimulus.

Legibility: The physical attributes of a sign that allow for differentiation of its letters, words, numbers, or graphics and that directly relate to an observer’s visual acuity. Legibility is considered an objective stimulus.

Understandability: That which enables the observer to correctly perceive the information content of letters, numbers or symbols grouped together, or other meaningful relationships on the sign. Understandability is the character of a sign that leads to comprehension of its intended message, and depends on legibility and other considerations of contents and time restraints. It is considered a subjective outcome.

When considering a design for an effective escape route it is important that the exit path and any potential obstacles are well illuminated (the centre line of any escape route should be lit to a minimum of 1Lux) and the route should be marked with well positioned signs that clearly indicate the direction towards a final exit and on to the “place of safety”.

The signs should be positioned so that each sign is always within a readable viewing distance and each sign shall be located so that it is visible to reconfirm the correct route at every intersection or change of direction so that evacuees can move along the escape route quickly and safely. However, in some environments (public buildings, retail areas, etc.) there may be a great number of sign boards, building furniture and visual obstacles that could confuse evacuees in an emergency. This is why safety signs must be easily seen and understood and, in today’s cosmopolitan society, it is essential that the meaning of signs does not rely on language.

The Legal Situation

Standardisation across Europe was one method of increasing a wider understanding of safety signs. Therefore, the EC Safety Signs Directive (92/58/EEC) was published and adopted as ‘The Health and Safety (Signs and Signals) Regulations’ in England during 1996. This piece of legislation set out simple ‘Pictogram’ sign formats to be used within the European Community.

The Regulations showed the intrinsic features required for emergency escape signs as being white on green, with pictorial symbols of a running man, a direction arrow and a door. These intrinsic features avoided the use of words in any of the escape signs and set out escape route guidance by showing the running man with an arrow down for when the escape route went straight on, arrow right for right turns and arrow left for left turns. The Regulations simplified the vast range of text signs that had previously been used.

The only problem with the EC Safety Signs Directive was that the pictograms supplied were of a different format to those shown in ISO documents and some National Standards such as BS 5499. Here are the three formats currently available for use in the UK: