Hazard symbol

These include risks associated with electromagnetic fields, electric currents, toxic chemicals, explosive substances, and radioactive materials.

Hazard symbols may vary in color, background, borders, or accompanying text to indicate specific dangers and levels of risk, such as toxicity classes.

Tape with yellow and black diagonal stripes is commonly used as a generic hazard warning.

It often appears on hazardous equipment, in instruction manuals to draw attention to a precaution, on tram/train blind spot warning stickers and on natural disaster (earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, volcanic eruption) preparedness posters/brochures—as an alternative when a more-specific warning symbol is not available.

The symbol, or some variation thereof, specifically with the bones (or swords) below the skull, was also featured on the Jolly Roger, the traditional flag of European and American seagoing pirates.

It is also part of the Canadian WHMIS home symbols placed on containers to warn that the contents are poisonous.

It used for denoting number of dead victims caused by natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes) or armed conflicts on event infographics.

The figure running away from the scene is meant to suggest taking action to avoid the labeled material.

[16] The biohazard symbol was developed in 1966 by Charles Baldwin, an environmental-health engineer working for the Dow Chemical Company on their containment products.

[17] According to Baldwin, who was assigned by Dow to its development: "We wanted something that was memorable but meaningless, so we could educate people as to what it means."

The article explained that over 40 symbols were drawn up by Dow's artists, and all of the symbols investigated had to meet a number of criteria: "(i) striking in form in order to draw immediate attention; (ii) unique and unambiguous, in order not to be confused with symbols used for other purposes; (iii) quickly recognizable and easily recalled; (iv) easily stenciled; (v) symmetrical, in order to appear identical from all angles of approach; and (vi) acceptable to groups of varying ethnic backgrounds."

Finally, the ring under is drawn from the distance to the perimeter of the equilateral triangle that forms between the centers of the three intersecting circles.

[25] It has also been adopted in the United States for materials being sold and shipped by manufacturers, distributors and importers.

[31] The system was developed in the early 1960s, as a means to warn firefighters of possible dangers posed by storage tanks filled with chemicals.

The white section denotes special hazard information, not properly covered by the other categories, such as water reactivity, oxidizers, and asphyxiant gases.

Some warning symbols have been redesigned to be more comprehensible to children, such as the Mr. Ouch (depicting an electricity danger as a snarling, spiky creature) and Mr. Yuk (a green frowny face sticking its tongue out, to represent poison) designs in the United States.