semiatic

GHS01

Exploding bomb

Can explode, or react violently by itself.

A black ball bursting apart, with fragments and streaks flying outwards.

GHS code
GHS01
Name
Exploding bomb
Signal word
Danger (Warning for Division 1.4 explosives)
Old orange symbols (not one-to-one)
E (Explosive)

What it warns about

The exploding bomb marks a product that can explode, either because it is an explosive or because it can decompose violently on its own when heated, knocked or contaminated. It is the rarest of the nine on anything sold to the public: most people never see one outside a quarry, a mine, a munitions or fireworks supply chain, or a chemical plant that makes plastics.

The pictogram only names the kind of hazard; follow the product’s label and safety data sheet for how to use, store and dispose of it.

The hazard classes it stands for

EU and GB: CLP Regulation, Annex V

  • Unstable explosives
  • Explosives of Divisions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4
  • Self-reactive substances and mixtures, Types A and B
  • Organic peroxides, Types A and B

US: OSHA Hazard Communication Standard, Appendix C

  • Explosives
  • Self-reactives
  • Organic peroxides

A category number is the severity inside a class: category 1 (or type A) is the most severe. The hazard statements on the label (H-codes in the EU, such as H225 “Highly flammable liquid and vapour”) say exactly which class and category applies.

Signal word

Usually Danger. Explosives of Division 1.4, which mostly burn or pop rather than mass-explode, take Warning. Divisions 1.5 and 1.6, and self-reactives and organic peroxides of Type G, get no pictogram at all.

A label carries one signal word for the whole product: if any hazard calls for Danger, Warning does not appear as well.

Where you see it

At home

Almost none. Fireworks, cartridges and flares carry transport and explosives-law markings instead of a chemical hazard label. The occasional exception is a hobby or lab chemical that becomes shock-sensitive when dry.

At work

Commercial blasting explosives and detonators, the most unstable organic peroxides (Types A and B), used as initiators in plastics making, and dry picric acid in old laboratory stock.

Examples of typical products, not a list of what any brand is classified as; the label on the product in your hand is what counts.

Where the rules differ

  • Under CLP, when the exploding bomb applies, the flame and the flame over circle become optional unless more than one of them is compulsory (Article 26(1)(a)).
  • OSHA lists the same three classes under this symbol in Figure C.1 of Appendix C.
  • A transport package carries the orange explosives label of the transport rules (in the US, 49 CFR 172.411), which is a different system; under CLP Article 33, the chemical pictogram may be left off an outer package whose transport label already shows the same hazard.

The old orange symbol it replaced

Replaced the orange E (Explosive). Annex VII to CLP says there is no direct translation for E: the substance has to be tested again, and the result can be an explosive, a self-reactive substance or an organic peroxide.

The mapping from the orange squares of Directive 67/548/EEC to the GHS pictograms is not one-to-one: CLP Annex VII translates each old classification separately, and some have no direct translation at all. All ten old symbols and what replaced them.

The other eight pictograms

Sources

Written in our own words from these official texts and checked on the date shown. The CLP text is the UK National Archives copy on legislation.gov.uk (EUR-Lex and unece.org did not answer a plain request from this host); it carries EU amendments made up to the end of 2020, and later EU changes may not be reflected. OSHA’s own pages refused the request, so the US text is the eCFR copy of the regulation.