Voluntary Standards Cover the Spectrum: from Welding of Zirconium to Fire Safety Symbols

In an effort to communicate the vital role that standards play in daily life, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will publish, on an ongoing basis, a series of snapshots of the diverse standards initiatives undertaken in the global and national standards arena, many of which are performed by ANSI members and ANSI-accredited standards developers. Two of the latest selections follow:

Welding of Zirconium
Hazard symbols are designed to warn about dangerous materials, locations, or emergency situations. Easily recognizable, the symbols are essential for fire service and operations, architectural and engineering drawings, insurance diagrams, pre-incident planning sketches, and the general public. To help ensure safety in the event of a fire, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently released revised ANS NFPA 170: 2012, Standard for Fire Safety Symbols.

The new ANS provides references and symbols for visually alerting building occupants during fire and related life safety emergencies including fire protection symbols for the architectural, engineering, and allied design fields; diagrams employed in fire risk and loss analysis; alerting fire fighters during fire and related emergencies; water supply, extinguishing, and sprinkler system drawings; electronic fire and smoke detection and notification system drawings; pre-incident planning sketches; emergency management mapping, evacuation diagrams, and plans; and related insurance diagrams for each category of symbols.

NFPA, an ANSI audited designator and organizational member, is a non-profit organization with an international scope that provides and advocates consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards.