Two new standards from International Organization for Standardization (ISO) aim to help organizations responsible for public warnings develop structured emergency responses for informing risk populations.
ISO 22322
This standard offers guidelines for public warning and guidelines for developing, managing and implementing public warnings before, during and after incidents occur.
Haruo Hayashi, project leader of ISO 22322, explains: “Time to communicate is limited and often a specific message involving practical action has to be disseminated to a large group. Simple procedures that send the message efficiently and create the desired response can save lives, protect health and prevent major disruptions.”
ISO 22324
This standard provides guidelines for color-coded alerts, provides guidelines for the use of color codes to inform people at risk, as well as first-response personnel, about danger and to express the severity of a situation.
ISO 22324 describes various colors and how they should be used.
- Red is associated with danger and should be used to notify people at risk to take appropriate safety actions immediately.
- Yellow is associated with caution and should be used to notify people at risk to prepare to take appropriate safety actions.
- Green is associated with a safe status and should be used to notify people at risk that no action is required.
“ISO 22322, which provides guidelines for public warning, can be used in combination with ISO 22324 and other standards that are under development on topics such as business continuity management, organizational resilience, security management and fraud countermeasures and control,” says Stefan Tangen, member of ISO technical committee 292.
Learn more at ISO’s website.