Telling others about the classification: the hazard label

If you use a hazardous chemical, you should make sure that you use and dispose of it properly and know what to do if something goes wrong, like a spillage. Some chemicals need more careful handling than others.

Labels can help you identify the more hazardous chemicals, tell you what the hazards are and how to avoid them.

Where the supplier concludes that no hazardous properties have been identified, a chemical is not classified as hazardous and there is often nothing more to do.

But where the supplier does conclude that a chemical could cause harm, they are expected to provide information about this on the label.

A hazard label is made up of specific symbols (known as 'pictograms') and written warnings. These pictograms and the wording that supports them are set out in law and chemical suppliers must use them where hazardous properties have been identified.

More information

ECHA's guidance on labelling and packaging is still helpful in explaining the requirements in CLP:

Source: European Chemicals Agency, http://echa.europa.eu. ECHA accepts no responsibility and/or liability for any use made of the information, documents or data.

If more information is needed, please contact the UK CLP Helpdesk at [email protected].

Is this page useful?

Updated: 2022-02-11