Safety cabinets are vital for securely storing flammable liquids and hazardous materials, designed with features like insulated double walls, latching doors, and optional ventilation to ensure safety. The color of a safety cabinet serves as a critical safety feature, indicating the type of material stored inside. This color-coding system helps reduce the risk of storing incompatible materials together by allowing quick identification of the cabinet's contents. In emergencies, such as fires, this enables first responders to make rapid, informed decisions about the hazards present, enhancing workplace safety and emergency response efficiency.
Although neither the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) nor the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) mandates color-coded safety cabinets, this practice is widely recognized as a best safety measure. Storing flammable liquids alongside organic peroxides or other reactive materials can be dangerous, making segregation essential. SAI-U simplifies this process by offering cabinets in recommended colors for different material classes, though companies can create their own color-coding systems since no universal standard exists. Establishing a clear color legend, labeling cabinets, and training employees on the system are crucial steps to ensure effective implementation and compliance with safety practices.
Color-coding is a widely accepted industry practice that facilitates quick identification of a cabinet's contents, intended use, or process status. SAI-U has developed classifications based on common industry standards for liquids and materials, including flammable liquids, combustible liquids, corrosive chemicals, hazardous materials, pesticides, and flammable waste. By organizing dangerous substances into compatible categories, this system enhances workplace safety by reducing the risk of improper storage and potential reactions between incompatible materials.
Yellow is a prevalent safety color used for cabinets storing flammable liquids, such as gasoline, diethyl ether, or acetone, which fall under OSHA Category 1, 2, 3, or 4. These cabinets are engineered to protect their contents during a fire, featuring a sump to contain spills and fireproofing elements that ensure safety. SAI-U's flammable liquids cabinets incorporate these protective features, which are also adapted across other cabinet classifications to meet specific storage needs.
Red, often associated with fire, is the standard color for cabinets storing combustible liquids like paints, aerosols, inks, diesel fuel, motor oil, and acetic acid. SAI-U's red Safety Storage Cabinet are designed to safely house these materials, providing robust protection against ignition and ensuring compliance with safety standards for combustible substances.
Light blue cabinets are typically used for storing corrosive chemicals, such as acids, bases, and solvents like glycolic acid, imidazole, sodium hydroxide, amines, and sulfuric acid. SAI-U's corrosive chemical storage cabinets feature an epoxy baked-on powder-coat finish on both interior and exterior surfaces for enhanced resistance to corrosive properties. They also include polyethylene shelf trays and a sump liner for added protection.
Royal blue cabinets are designated for storing a broad range of hazardous materials, equipped with labels for classifications like pyrophoric, oxidizer, self-reactive, toxic, water-reactive, corrosive, flammable solid, and organic peroxide. This allows precise labeling based on the cabinet's contents.
Laboratories often use cabinets in subdued colors like white, gray, or neutral for storing lab agents. These cabinets offer the same protective features as yellow flammable liquid cabinets when storing flammable materials. For non-flammable materials, polyethylene safety cabinets are a suitable option.
White safety cabinets with prominent red “Flammable Waste” labels are used to store flammable material waste safely until proper disposal. Built to the same standards as flammable liquid cabinets, these cabinets ensure secure containment of hazardous waste, protecting the workplace from potential fire risks.
Some chemicals, such as alkylamines, polyalkylamines, and chlorosilanes, possess multiple hazard properties, like being both corrosive and flammable. In such cases, the flammable property typically poses the highest risk, so these materials should be stored in a flammable liquid cabinet rather than a corrosive chemical cabinet. Consulting the manufacturer's safety data sheets (SDS) is essential to understand a material's hazard properties and ensure proper storage to maintain safety.
Safety cabinets vary in shape, size, color, capacity, and features, but all are designed to protect personnel and facilities. Adopting a color-coding system simplifies material storage, reduces the risk of storing incompatible substances together, and enhances safety for first responders. By choosing to color-code safety cabinets, organizations align with best safety practices, improving workplace safety and emergency preparedness.
This guide serves as a reference and is not a substitute for comprehensive knowledge of safety procedures and regulations specific to your materials, safety cabinet, industry, and location. For detailed and location-specific guidance, contacting authorities with jurisdiction is strongly recommended to ensure compliance and safety.
