Does a company need to retrofit old equipment in use out in the field with new safety labels?
With the 2002 revision of the ANSI Z535.4 standard making obsolete the old Z35 formatted safety labels, this question is being asked fairly often. It is best to consult your company’s legal counsel on this issue to determine the answer that is right for your company. The following is the general advice we can offer on this subject: The first factor to look at is whether the old safety labels adequately communicate the safety information necessary by today’s standards. If they are inadequate, in the name of being a safety conscious company that does everything possible to protect its product users, you might determine that you have a problem and that something needs to be done about providing better safety labels to those who use your products. If you determine that something does need to be done (your old safety labels are inadequate in their content), then you must make a determination based on what is reasonable. To arrive at this answer, you ask, “Does my company know where their pr
