No stepping on surface (red prohibition sign)
The standard’s wording, as the sources below reproduce it:
“To prohibit stepping onto a surface.”
ISO 7010-P019 · IEC 60601-1, Table D.2, safety sign 7
What it means for you
Do not step or stand on the part it is on. On medical equipment it marks surfaces that look like a step but are not built to carry a person’s weight, or that would tip or damage the device if stood on — the base frame or foot end of a bed, the base of a patient lift, a trolley shelf, the cover of an examination or imaging table. If you need height, use a step stool, not the equipment.
Whether a device is right for you is a question for your pharmacist, nurse or doctor.
- What it looks like
- A red circle with a red diagonal bar over a black figure lifting one foot onto a block, as if climbing a step.
- Where you see it
- Hospital and care beds, stretchers, patient lifts, examination and imaging tables and equipment carts: on base covers, frames, foot ends and low shelves.
- Other names
- do not step; no stepping; ISO 7010 P019; do not stand on
What it does not tell you
It does not say how much weight the part can take, or whether sitting on it is allowed. Sitting has its own sign (No sitting, ISO 7010-P018), which only one glossary we fetched reproduces, so it has no page here.
Often confused with
To prohibit pushing against an object.
More symbols in “Blue, red or yellow safety signs”
Sources
ISO 7010 and IEC 60601-1 are paid standards, so the wording above is quoted as 2 publishers’ public documents reproduce it; our drawing is not the ISO artwork. Each was fetched and read on the date shown:
- Boston Scientific: Symbols Glossary — Row “No stepping on surface”, IEC 60601-1 Table D.2, Symbol 7: “To prohibit stepping onto a surface.” The row above it is “No sitting”, Symbol 6. Checked 2026-10-16.
- Ethicon: Symbols glossary (100584677 Rev.8) — Page 11, under ISO 7010 “Registered safety signs”, published on e-ifu.com, the Johnson & Johnson MedTech instructions-for-use site: the sign with accompanying text “No stepping on surface” and reference P019. Checked 2026-10-16.
Plain-language parts are in our own words; quotations are the sources’ wording.