semiatic

GHS06

Skull and crossbones

Toxic or fatal in small amounts.

A black skull above two crossed bones.

GHS code
GHS06
Name
Skull and crossbones
Signal word
Danger
Old orange symbols (not one-to-one)
T (Toxic), T+ (Very toxic)

What it warns about

The skull and crossbones marks severe acute toxicity: a small amount swallowed, in contact with the skin or breathed in can be toxic or fatal. It is only about acute (short-term) poisoning. Long-term effects such as cancer are shown by the health hazard pictogram instead.

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

  • Acute toxicity (oral, dermal, inhalation), categories 1, 2 and 3

US: OSHA Hazard Communication Standard, Appendix C

  • Acute toxicity (severe)

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

Danger, always.

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

Rare in shops that sell to the public. Examples include methanol-based model-engine fuel and some professional pest-control concentrates.

At work

Methanol, some pesticide concentrates, cyanide salts, hydrofluoric acid (with corrosion), phenol and many laboratory reagents.

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

  • When the skull and crossbones is on the label, the exclamation mark is not used for acute toxicity (OSHA Appendix C, C.2.1.2; CLP Article 26(1)(b)), so a product never shows both for the same kind of poisoning.
  • Under CLP, the gas cylinder is optional on a toxic gas that already shows the skull (Article 26(1)(e)).
  • The white poison label used in transport (49 CFR 172.430 in the US) also shows a skull and crossbones. It is a transport label, not the GHS pictogram.

The old orange symbol it replaced

Replaced the orange T (Toxic) and T+ (Very toxic) for acute poisoning (R23 to R28). Not one-to-one: T and T+ were also used for serious organ damage (R39, R48) and for the most serious carcinogens, which now carry the health hazard instead.

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.