Eyewash station sign (E011)

How to read it

Green squares are ISO 3864-1’s safe condition signs, which indicate “the location of safety equipment or a safety facility”, and ISO 7010 registers this one as E011, “Eyewash station”. Great Britain’s Safety Signs and Signals Regulations 1996 list an Eyewash sign among the first-aid signs, white on green. The sign marks where the equipment is; it is not a warning.

Also searched as: E011, emergency eyewash sign, eye wash sign, eye wash station symbol, eyewash symbol, green eye wash sign.

Why labs post it

In the United States, OSHA’s first-aid rule requires suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body within the work area wherever someone’s eyes or body may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials. OSHA’s non-mandatory appendix on laboratory chemical hygiene lists location signs for safety showers, eyewash stations and other safety equipment among the signs labs should post, and the University of Houston’s door signs show an eyewash pictogram for labs that have one.

Look-alikes

The safety shower sign, E012, sits next to it in ISO 7010 and is often posted beside it: a whole figure under a shower head, not a face. A white cross on green is the first-aid sign, E003.