Language issues as a result of illiteracy and foreign languages on the shopfloor are not being identified as a risk within current safety management systems. These risks are to be identified, quantified and prioritised in order to allow risk reducing measures to be taken.The nature of language issues related danger was investigated in literature. Based on accident investigation reports, human error research and accident investigation method causal factor categories, the associated risks were quantified. Legibility of safety related documents used by Seveso II companies was investigated and found to be poor in many cases. Interviews and a survey among Seveso II companies are to be used to identify the gap between current best practices and the language issue related dangers found in literature. This investigation shows by means of triangulation with different approaches that language issue related risks are indeed underestimated or even completely ignored. A recommended coarse of action and further work in order to arrive at appropriate measures are presented.