Class 8 label: corrosive substances (white top, black bottom)
The package contains a corrosive substance that destroys skin and eats into metal: battery acid, drain cleaner, caustic soda, strong acids.
Who puts it on the box
The sender (consignor).
How to read it
Wear gloves if a package is wet or damaged and keep it upright; corrosive liquids usually carry orientation arrows too. Drain cleaner and similar retail products often travel as limited quantities instead.
What it does not promise
It does not promise the package is leak-free, and it does not say whether the contents are an acid or an alkali — the name on the box does.
A mark on a parcel is the sender’s statement about what is inside and how it should be handled. It is not a certificate that the parcel is packed safely, that anyone handled it as marked, or that your carrier accepts it: for what you may send, read the carrier’s own terms.
- What it looks like
- A diamond white in the top half and black in the bottom half; at the top, liquid dripping from two test tubes onto a hand and onto a bar of metal. The figure 8 is in white in the bottom corner.
- Regulation
- ADR 2025, 5.2.2.2.2, label model No. 8; UN Model Regulations 5.2.2.2.2
- Kind of mark
- A dangerous-goods mark or label from the UN Model Regulations, applied in Europe by ADR (road) and its sister agreements for rail and waterways, and on the same pattern by the US 49 CFR. It says the package holds dangerous goods.
- Also called
- Corrosive label; Class 8 diamond
Related
Other marks with the same shape
Sources
Each document was fetched and read on the date shown. Written in our own words; quotations are the documents’ wording.
- Regulator guidance — Health and Safety Executive (UK regulator for the carriage of dangerous goods): Carriage of dangerous goods manual — Consignment procedures: marking and labelling of packages (ADR 5.2) — Package labels are the “hazard diamonds” of ADR 5.2.2 with the class number; specimen labels are in ADR 5.2.2.2.2 and sizes in 5.2.2.2.1.1; the consignor is responsible for marking and labelling. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Law adopting the same mark — US Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 49 CFR, edition of 1 October 2024: 49 CFR Part 172 Subpart E — Labeling (§§ 172.400–172.450, the hazard class labels) — § 172.442: the CORROSIVE label, white in the top half and black in the lower half. Labels are at least 100 mm on each side with an inner border about 5 mm inside the edge (§ 172.407). Checked 2026-09-27.