What to Know About Gas Cylinder Storage Signage Requirements

A range of flammable and toxic chemicals are often stored and transported in drums and cylinders. Although individual containers hold moderately small inventories, one cylinder of liquified or compressed toxic gas can be a potential hazard. 

Cylinder storage signs are warning message alerts that are mounted in areas to create awareness for areas where cylinders containing flammable gases and compressed air are stored.

Signage of gas cylinders is legally required and forms a portion of workplace risk assessments. The Health and Safety signs and signals regulations state that all cylinder storage signs must be legible and clear to all. Signage must be used in order to identify environments that require a warning to indicate the storage of harmful and flammable substances. 

The Potential Hazards of Gas Cylinders

Gas cylinders present a number of different hazards that need to be signed for personal safety, these include:

• Size, shape and weight: gas cylinders are typically heavy and can be unstable due to the base diameter to height ratio. Larger cylinders can weigh over 100kg when they are full and can easily topple over when not transported correctly.
  
• Pressure hazards: gas cylinders contain significant pressure. Any pressure above the atmospheric level can cause serious injury to personnel or property when released. This is true of both full and empty cylinders.

Legal and Permit Requirements for Gas Cylinder Storage

It is important to remember that consent from your local authority may be necessary in order to store quantities of dangerous substances over certain thresholds. The regulations contain individual thresholds for both named substances, such as hydrogen and oxygen, and for categories of substances such as flammable and toxic.

Gas Cylinder Storage Sign Regulations

Safety signs are set out under EN ISO 7010, with strict rules about colours, fonts, and sizes, intended to make a globally recognisable collection of safety signs. Here are the regular layouts of these signs relevant to gas cylinder storage:

• Mandatory Signs: These signs can cover clothing that must be worn or other protective actions that must be taken. They will be circular with white shapes displayed on a blue background.
• Prohibition Signs: These are easily recognisable signs with crossed out red circles over a black picture. They can make clean that certain actions or items are prohibited within an area.
• Hazard Warning Signs: These will be yellow triangles with a black outline and central image, making readers aware of hazards within an area such as flammable materials (for example LPG cylinders).

Alongside standard designs, custom safety signs can be ordered, laying out instructions with green, red, blue, or yellow backgrounds.

What Gas Cylinder Storage Signs Should You Use?

The following signage codes of practice are taken from the British Compressed Gases Association. Every area where gas cylinders are stored must be declared a no-smoking area, with signs indicating this. Alongside “No Smoking” signs, the following signs can be displayed:

• No Naked Lights
• No Sources of Ignition
• No Access For Unauthorised Persons
• No Mobile Phones or Other Electronic Devices
• No Storage of Oil, Grease or Combustible Materials

There are also specific signs available for certain gases, shown below:

• For Inert Gases:
  • Asphyxiation Hazard
• For Flammable Gases:
  • Flammable Gas
  • Asphyxiation Hazard
• For Oxidising Gases:
  • Oxidising Gas
• For Toxic Gases:
  • Toxic Gas
  • Asphyxiation Hazard
• For Corrosive Gases:
  • Corrosive Gas
  • Asphyxiation Hazard

In cases where the contents of a gas cylinder are unclear, they will need to be quarantined and the supplier will need to be contacted. In this case, a sign reading “Gas Cylinder Quarantine Area” should be used.

There are specific dangers when storing acetylene, and it will react differently from other gases when exposed to a fire. If acetylene is being stored among your cylinders, you should install signs declaring this outside the storage, to make the fire service aware of its presence.

Signs for protective equipment may also be required. These will be blue in colour and can make clear the need for protective glasses, shoes, or gloves.

Personalised Information

The specific information of your site should also be displayed to assist those in the event of an emergency. This notice should include:

• The actions someone should take in the event of an emergency
• Contact details for the site operator
• Emergency contact numbers for either the gas supplier or site operator
• Phone numbers for emergency services.

This information should be displayed at a control point.

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