A new ISO standard will help ensure occupants trying to evacuate a facility during a fire will better understand escape plans and signs.
ISO 23601:2009, Safety identification – Escape and evacuation plan signs, establishes design principles for displayed escape plans that provide information vital to fire safety, escape, evacuation and rescue of facility occupants.
The purpose of escape plans is to help people orient themselves in relation to the planned escape route. In this way, the escape plan complements the facility’s safety-exit guidance system.
The standard has been developed because there is a need to harmonize on an international scale a system of communicating escape routes in facilities that relies as little as possible on the use of words to get the message through.
With an increasingly mobile world population and ever-greater opportunities for international trade, graphical symbols are essential tools for concisely conveying messages to users independently of language. Where safety signs are concerned, ease and speed of recognition are vital to help save people from injury and death.
ISO 23601 is based on the safety signs, color codes and design requirements of ISO 7010:2003, Graphical symbols – Safety colors and safety signs – Safety signs. It establishes a common method of illustrating the position of the viewer in relation to designated escape routes leading to emergency exits and the location of fire safety and emergency equipment close to escape routes. It covers:
* design requirements
* size of plan elements
* content and representation
* materials
* installation and location
* inspection and revision.
