Glossary · Specialization and domains

DITA hazard statement

Also known as: hazardstatement, safety message, hazard statement domain

In DITA, a hazard statement (<hazardstatement>) is an element of the hazard statement domain for safety messages. It specializes the note element and structures a message into the type of hazard, its consequence and how to avoid it, with an optional safety symbol and a signal word set by the @type attribute.

DITA
Architecture
Safety

In one sentence

A DITA hazard statement structures a safety message into hazard type, consequence and how to avoid it, with a signal word and safety symbol.

Example

A warning with the hazard “Moving fan blades”, the consequence “Risk of cut injuries to the fingers” and the measure “Disconnect the device from the power supply before opening the housing”.

Explained in context

Context cards connect this term with others to answer one question. Also in British English and German.

Where a warning belongs: safety chapter or before the taskShould a warning go into the safety chapter or directly before the step it concerns?UK Deutsch

How it applies

Safety: The hazard statement domain supports safety messages structured according to ANSI Z535 and ISO 3864: a signal word set by @type (danger, warning, caution, notice, among others), a <messagepanel> with the <typeofhazard>, its <consequence> and <howtoavoid>, and one or more <hazardsymbol> images.
Technical documentation: Structured hazard statements are consistent by construction. Combined with conref, a company can maintain one approved hazard statement per hazard and reuse it everywhere.
Regulation: Machinery, medical device and AI rules require instructions to state risks and how to avoid them. Hazard statements as separate, identifiable elements make it possible to show which risks are communicated where.
AI and retrieval: Safety messages must never be separated from the step they belong to. A structured <hazardstatement> can be detected and kept with its task when content is chunked for retrieval.

Hazard statement vs. note

A <note type="warning"> is a generic note with a label. A <hazardstatement> breaks the message into hazard, consequence and avoidance measures, which is what safety standards expect.

In DITA markup

<hazardstatement type="warning">
  <messagepanel>
    <typeofhazard>Moving fan blades.</typeofhazard>
    <consequence>Risk of cut injuries to the fingers.</consequence>
    <howtoavoid>Disconnect the device from the power supply before opening the housing.</howtoavoid>
  </messagepanel>
  <hazardsymbol href="images/iso7010-w024.svg"/>
</hazardstatement>