Immediate Evacuation Warning Signal

During a radiation emergency, an immediate evacuation warning signal is critical to protect as many lives as possible. The following are OSHA's guidelines on the use of immediate evacuation warning signal systems in occupational settings where potential for radiation exposure in harmful doses exists:

• The signal must be a midfrequency complex sound wave amplitude modulated at a subsonic frequency. The complex sound wave in free space must have a fundamental frequency between 450 and 500 hertz (Hz) modulated at a subsonic rate between 4 and 5 hertz.
• The signal generator must not be less than 75 decibels at every location where an individual may be present whose immediate, rapid, and complete evacuation is essential.
• Enough signal units must be installed to ensure that a signal unit is present at every location where an individual may be present whose immediate, rapid, and complete evacuation is essential.
• The signal must be unique in the plant or facility in which it is installed.
• The minimum duration of the signal must be sufficient to ensure that all affected persons hear the signal.
• The signal-generating system must respond automatically to an initiating event without requiring any human action to sound the signal.

All employees who work in an area covered by the signal must be made familiar with the actual sound of the signal. Before placing the system into operation, all employees normally working in the area must be made acquainted with the signal by actual demonstration at their work locations.

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