Citation

Wang AH, Chi CC. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2003; 31(5): 343-355.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of the Republic of China (Taiwan)'s hazardous material symbol labeling (12 types), subjects' educational specialization (design, industrial, and business), and training (before training, immediately following training, and one month after training) on symbol comprehension. The results showed that hazardous material symbol labeling and training were significant factors for comprehension. Symbol comprehension among the three educational specializations also showed significant difference. Subjects having specialized in industrial coursework best understood the hazard symbol labels. Overall, subjects' comprehension was high for well-designed, meaningful labels (labels for explosives materials, and poisonous materials group I and II). Comprehension of most hazard symbol labels increased after having received training, but there was a significant decline in comprehension performance after one month. The well-designed hazard symbols, which were the best understood initially, also resulted in the least comprehension dropping in the one-month post-training test. Even with extensive training, these poorly designed symbols still may not be successfully understood when the meaning link is forgotten.Relevance to industryThis study gives suggestions to designers for revising hazardous material symbol labels. These results show the training is helpful for hazardous labels to convey information about the hazardous materials. Finally, these findings can be useful in the redesign of labels for other kinds of products and equipment.