UN rebrands radiation sign

UN rebrands radiation | The Register

The UN wants everyone to start using this new radiation sign, despite the fact that when shown to college students in the UK and US, most of them failed to understand what it meant. They picked up on the fact that the sign represented danger, but were unable to figure out what it meant.

In addition, every other hazard symbol is a triangle with a yellow background, not red. If this is to replace all radiation signs, this is misleading. Some hazard signs would look less important, such as the biohazard one. It often warns about deadly diseases that are stored inside, whereas the radiation sign often is only a warning about potential exposure. It needs to be listed on doctors’ and densits’ surgeries where there are x-ray machines, in hospitals, in university labs, etc.

In each place the normal level of exposure is not life threatening, and in a lot of places, you need to be exposed (like getting an x-ray or CT scan).

Imagine you’ve broken your arm and are in the hospital, and are wheeled into the radiography department. Would you want a sign that says “Danger Radiation” or a sign that says “Danger! Radiation and death! Run for your life!”

The worst part is that the new sign is the result of “five years of research and testing on 1,650 individuals in 11 countries” according to the article.