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In reponse to Ian White's question about CAUTION, WARNING, DANGER:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) use these labels to indicate progressive conditions
of hazard. CAUTION indicates a moderate physical hazard. WARNING denotes a
higher degree of physical hazard than CAUTION. DANGER signals a hazard that
could quite possibly kill the unwary. Where I work, DANGER usually only appears
on warning signs close in proximity to the hazard.
Oddly, this usage (ratified by OSHA and ANSI) is in conflict with common usage
in some circles. I believe that Mil-standards (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
use CAUTION to denote information on equipment damage. WARNING is the the same
as for ANSI and OSHA. Additional information that may not be crucial is
labeled NOTE. We've been going through some contortions here to resolve some
of these contradictions. We've decided to use international icons in addition
to the OSHA-ANSI tags to communicate the information.
Bill Burns
Assm. Technical Writer/Editor
Micron Technology, Inc.
