Display Risks and simplified CLP security

Quick Answer: Display Risks and simplified CLP security is a wall display that explains chemical hazard labelling under the CLP system in simplified form, showing the red-bordered hazard pictograms and what each one warns about. Science departments put it up where students handle reagent bottles.

The CLP Pictograms in Plain Terms

CLP stands for Classification, Labelling and Packaging, the European regulation that applies the United Nations Globally Harmonized System (GHS) to chemicals. Under it, the older orange square symbols were replaced by white diamonds with a red border and a black pictogram. A simplified CLP hazard pictograms poster keeps the essentials: the pictograms, a short description of each hazard, and the two signal words, ‘Danger’ for the more severe hazards and ‘Warning’ for the less severe.

There are nine symbols: the exploding bomb (explosives), the flame (flammable), the flame over a circle (oxidisers), the gas cylinder (gases under pressure), corrosion (substances that attack skin, eyes or metals), the skull and crossbones (acute toxicity), the exclamation mark (irritants and less severe health hazards), the health hazard silhouette (serious long-term effects such as sensitisation or organ damage) and the environment symbol with a dead tree and fish. Students meet these on bottles of hydrochloric acid, ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and copper sulfate long before they study the regulation itself.

At a distance several pictograms look alike, and the usual confusions are between the exclamation mark and the health hazard silhouette, and between the flame and the flame over a circle. A display that sets them side by side addresses exactly those mistakes, and teachers can add the name of a chemical from their own store beneath each symbol.

Applications

• Teaching students to read a reagent label before their first practical with acids
• Induction for new laboratory assistants who will decant and relabel chemicals
• A quiz in which students match store-room bottles to the pictograms they carry
• Reinforcing the difference between the signal words Danger and Warning

Specifications

Care & Handling

• Fix the display at eye level near the reagent shelves, where students actually pick up bottles.
• Keep it out of the sink and fume cupboard splash zone; a cover sheet or frame helps if it must hang close by.
• Replace it if the red borders fade to pink, since the colour is part of how the symbols are recognised.

Why Choose LabEquip

Chemistry departments and lab technicians usually order this display together with the general Risks and Safety in the Laboratory poster, which covers behaviour and protective equipment. Both are part of the Educational Charts range; school orders are handled through the LabEquip contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does CLP mean on a chemical label?

CLP is the European Classification, Labelling and Packaging regulation. It sets how hazardous chemicals are classified and how their labels show pictograms, signal words, hazard statements and precautionary statements, following the UN GHS system.

How many hazard pictograms are there under CLP?

There are nine: explosive, flammable, oxidising, gas under pressure, corrosive, acute toxicity, the exclamation mark for irritants and lesser health hazards, serious health hazard, and hazardous to the aquatic environment.

What is the difference between Danger and Warning?

They are the two signal words. Danger marks the more severe hazard categories and Warning the less severe ones. A label carries only one signal word, the one for its most serious hazard.

Is the display a substitute for a safety data sheet?

No. A display builds awareness of what the symbols mean. The detailed hazards, first-aid measures and storage advice for each chemical are in its safety data sheet, which staff should read before use.

Why did the old orange hazard symbols change?

The orange square symbols belonged to an earlier European system that has been replaced by the globally harmonised pictograms, so that the same hazard looks the same on labels in different countries. Older bottles in a store room may still carry the earlier symbols.

What do H and P statements on a label mean?

Hazard statements, coded H, describe the nature of the hazard, for example causes severe skin burns. Precautionary statements, coded P, say what to do, such as wear eye protection. Both appear on the label with the pictograms.

Last Updated: September 2026