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ISO 7010 · W-series · Warning

W009 Warning; Biological hazard

Our drawing of ISO 7010 W009, Warning; Biological hazard: yellow triangle with a black border, black symbol
Our drawing, not ISO’s artwork.

Something here may carry biological agents that can infect people: a laboratory or animal room, a fridge or freezer holding blood or samples, a clinical waste bin or a sharps box. The symbol inside the yellow triangle is the biohazard trefoil, three crescents around a small ring.

ISO 7010 reference
W009
Registered title
Warning; Biological hazard ISO Online Browsing Platform, ISO 7010 - W009, Warning; Biological hazard, reference number and registered title
Colour and shape
Yellow triangle with a black border, black symbol: Warning: a hazard is here

What the yellow triangle with a black border means

In HSE’s guidance on the UK Safety Signs and Signals Regulations 1996, a warning sign has a triangular shape Health and Safety Executive (HSE), L64 Safety signs and signals: The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. Guidance on Regulations (third edition), Part 2, warning signs, intrinsic features (a), page 14 and a black pictogram on a yellow background with black edging (the yellow part to take up at least 50% of the area of the sign) Health and Safety Executive (HSE), L64 Safety signs and signals: The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. Guidance on Regulations (third edition), Part 2, warning signs, intrinsic features (b), page 14

Its colour stands for: Warning sign, Be careful; take precautions; examine Health and Safety Executive (HSE), L64 Safety signs and signals: The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. Guidance on Regulations (third edition), Table 1, yellow or amber, meaning or purpose (page 12)

Where you see it

  • On the door of a laboratory, animal room or other area where biological agents are handled. In the UK, COSHH requires warning signs including the biohazard sign wherever exposure to a biological agent cannot reasonably be prevented; in US HIV and HBV research labs, OSHA requires it on every access door. UK legislation (The National Archives), The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2677), regulation 7, regulation 7(6)(a)
  • On fridges and freezers that hold blood or other potentially infectious material, and on the containers used to store, carry or ship it. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(A)
  • On clinical waste bins, bags and sharps boxes. OSHA counts contaminated sharps and blood-soaked items as regulated waste and requires sharps containers to be labelled or colour-coded. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(b) Regulated Waste; (d)(4)(iii)(A)(1)
  • On contaminated equipment, where the US label must also say which parts are still contaminated. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(H)

What to do when you see it

  • Do not go through a door with this sign unless you are allowed in. OSHA limits these areas to people who have been told about the hazard, meet any entry requirements and follow the entry and exit procedures; the sign at the entrance names the agent, the special requirements and a person to contact. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(e)(2)(ii)(C); (g)(1)(ii)(A)
  • Do not open, reach into, empty or re-use a marked bin, bag, box or fridge unless handling it is your job and you have been shown how. Treat what is inside as infectious: OSHA’s rule is that where body fluids cannot be told apart, all of them are treated as potentially infectious. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(d)(1)
  • If you are cut, pricked or splashed by something from a marked container, report it at once. In the US the employer must then make a confidential medical evaluation available straight away. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(f)(3)

In the UK: HSE L64 and COSHH

In the US: OSHA

  • The biological hazard warning shall be used to signify the actual or potential presence of a biohazard and to identify equipment, containers, rooms, materials, experimental animals, or combinations thereof, which contain, or are contaminated with, viable hazardous agents. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.145 Specifications for accident prevention signs and tags, 1910.145(e)(4), biological hazard signs
  • Warning labels shall be affixed to containers of regulated waste, refrigerators and freezers containing blood or other potentially infectious material; and other containers used to store, transport or ship blood or other potentially infectious materials US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(A)
  • These labels shall be fluorescent orange or orange-red or predominantly so, with lettering and symbols in a contrasting color. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(C)
  • Red bags or red containers may be substituted for labels. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(E)
  • a hazard warning sign incorporating the universal biohazard symbol shall be posted on all access doors. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(e)(2)(ii)(D), HIV and HBV research laboratories and production facilities

What this sign cannot tell you

  • It does not say which organism is present or how dangerous it is. UK law sorts biological agents into four hazard groups, from Group 1 (unlikely to cause human disease) to Group 4 (severe disease, likely to spread, usually no effective treatment), and the same sign is used for all of them. The entrance sign or the area’s rules give the detail. UK legislation (The National Archives), The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2677), Schedule 3: Additional provisions relating to work with biological agents, Part I, paragraph 2(2)
  • It does not prove the material is still infectious. OSHA lets waste that has been decontaminated go without a label, so a marked bag may hold untreated waste, and an unmarked one is not a promise of safety either. US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 29 CFR 1910.1030 Bloodborne pathogens, 1910.1030(g)(1)(i)(I)
  • Colour does not change the meaning. ISO 7010 puts the symbol in a yellow triangle; US bloodborne-pathogen labels are fluorescent orange or orange-red, and a red bag or red container may stand in for the label.
  • It is not the label for posting a sample. A parcel of infectious substances carries the white class 6.2 diamond, and most patient samples travel as UN3373 without the trefoil; the bare trefoil printed on a medical device’s packaging is a device symbol from ISO 15223-1. Each has its own page, linked below.

Signs people confuse with it, or find beside it

Other warning signs

Sources

ISO 7010 is a paid standard. Its OBP entries are free to view, but on 2026-10-16 every request from us to www.iso.org got a bot check (HTTP 403) instead of the entry, so the reference and registered title above were not re-read that day; they are the ones ISO 7010 registers for W009. The UK and US lines in quotation marks are the regulators’ own words about the same symbol, read that day.

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