Spatial and Color Arrangement

Chapter Six and Appendix A of the 1980 NFPA 704 Standard are reproduced below. Appendix A provides a good recap of the general system. One should obtain a copy of the complete 704 System from NFPA before attempting to implement this label system. Contact Mr. Martin F. Henry, Secretary, Committee on Fire Hazards of Materials, NFPA, Battery March Park, Quincy, MA 02269, for further information on this system. 

NIOSH—AN IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR OCCUPATIONALLY HAZARDOUS MATERIAL 

Richard J. Lewis, Sr., Division of Technical Service, The Industrial Hygiene Branch of The National Institute for Occupational Safety Health, had primary responsibility for the development of this recommended Standard. Although Lewis led the project, input was received from General Motors Corporation, Olin Corporation and Shell Oil Company, the Michigan Department of Health, The University of Missouri, and of course various offices and divisions of NIOSH. The work draws heavy upon NFPA s 704 system and CMA s LAPI Guide to Precautionary Labeling. The recommended colors follow NFPA, as do the three major hazard classes health, reactivity, and flammability. 

A major departure occurs in the NIOSH definition of health class . NIOSH is concerned with both acute and low level long term exposure, perhaps for a lifetime, that a worker may experience, primarily occurring under normal work conditions. NIOSH is not directly concerned with the decomposition or combustion products (as NFPA is) of chemicals unless they constitute the normal exposure of a worker. There is greater concern with chronic effects. 

The health, reactivity and flammability hazard classes are divided into 5 levels and assigned a number from 0 to 4, as in the NFPA 704 system. This system, thus, utilizes kind of hazard and level of hazard NFPA concepts. 

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