Protect from radioactive sources (trefoil over a cover)
The contents could be spoiled by penetrating radiation: keep the box away from radioactive sources such as radioactive consignments or industrial radiography sources.
Who puts it on the box
The sender of goods that radiation damages: unexposed photographic or X-ray film, some sensors and electronics.
How to read it
This protects the parcel, it does not warn about it. Store it away from radioactive packages (those with a class 7 label) and other sources of penetrating radiation.
What it does not promise
It does not promise, or even suggest, that the parcel is radioactive — radioactive contents carry the class 7 diamond label, not this mark. It does not promise the parcel was kept away from airport or postal X-ray screening either.
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
- The three-bladed radiation trefoil above a roof-like cover that shelters a box below it — black, without a coloured label around it.
- Standard
- ISO 780:2015, symbol No. 12 — Protect from radioactive sources (ISO 7000-2401)
- ISO 7000 registration
- ISO 7000-2401
- Kind of mark
- A handling symbol from ISO 780, the international standard for handling marks on distribution packages. ISO 780 marks are always black; they say how to handle the package, never that its contents are dangerous.
- Also called
- Protect from radiation; Do not X-ray; Keep away from radioactive sources
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.
- Symbol list — IBJ / bravecroc (graphical-symbol file vendor): ISO 780 EN Symbols (2015-12): the 17 ISO 780:2015 symbols with their numbers and titles — Lists ISO 780 symbol No. 12, “PROTECT FROM RADIOACTIVE SOURCES”, with a reference drawing, in the 2015 numbering. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Standard (preview pages) — ISO (preview pages published by iTeh Standards): ISO 780:1997 Packaging — Pictorial marking for handling of goods, 4th edition (preview: clause 2 and part of Table 1) — Table 1 No. 5 PROTECT FROM RADIOACTIVE SOURCES, ISO 7000 No. 2401: contents may deteriorate or be rendered totally unusable by penetrating radiation. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Standard (preview pages) — ISO (preview pages published by iTeh Standards): ISO 780:2015 Packaging — Distribution packaging — Graphical symbols for handling and storage of packages, 5th edition 2015-12-01 (preview: foreword to Table 1) — Foreword: the 17 symbols of the 2015 edition; clause 3.3: symbols are black, never red, orange or yellow (to avoid confusion with dangerous-goods labels); 3.4: normally 100, 150 or 200 mm tall; 3.5 and 3.6: how many and where are fixed for symbols No. 1, 2, 3, 8 and 13; the introduction: “The use of graphical symbols does not provide any guarantee of satisfactory handling”. Checked 2026-09-27.