safety signs perception and adoption with the iso and ansi standards

Background: one way of controlling hazards in the work environment is a use of safety signs. safety signs are among the safe information group; hence, if these signs are not understood properly it could cause an injury or even death. objectives: the aim of this study is surveying perception of safety signs and adoption with iso and ansi standards. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted during 2013 to 2014 in the 3 provinces of khuzestan, fars, and tehran. the study population included 370 non-monochromatic employees working in the industries. for collecting information, the standard questionnaire of the international organization for standard (iso 9186-1) and demographic information was used. a total of 13 safety signs were utilized for determination of perception. stratified - random sampling method was used, then, the obtained data were utilized using spss-16 software and applying descriptive statistics. results: in this study, the overall rate of perception of safety signswas78.4% with a standard deviation of 15.1%. the lowest percentage of perception was related to the sign “face shield must be worn” (53.5%). in the assessment of safety signs based on ansi z5353 and iso 9186-1 standard, 62.5% and 69.2% of signs can be reached to limit of acceptable perception. conclusions: the perception patterns of safety signs are different. assessing perception of signs show a moderate level of perception in accordance with iso standard; however, to reach ansi standard, implementation of intervention programs (judgment test) is suggested due to perceptual adaptation with target population and redesign of sign with low perception.