AED sign

How to read it

ILCOR’s task force designed the sign to ISO 7010 for safety signs and shape, with colours and symbols to ISO 3864-3, and tested its comprehensibility to ISO 9186-1, where it proved superior to alternative designs. ILCOR says the sign shows the presence of an AED, where one is in a room, a container with an AED for public use, or the way to one, and that it may be combined with an arrow or with the letters AED or their equivalent in other languages; the full word “defibrillator” is not encouraged, because it is hard to read from a distance. Its green is RAL 6032 (Pantone 348C). ISO 7010 lists it as E010, “Automated external heart defibrillator”.

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The cross in the corner

ILCOR calls the heart and the flash standard symbols. Its letter shows the basic sign as a green square without letters, with any text in a separate box, and a version with a white cross in the upper right corner, which it notes France, Portugal and Korea require. Our drawing shows the version with the cross.

The UK sign

In the United Kingdom, the Resuscitation Council UK designed its own AED sign in 2006, accepted by the Health and Safety Executive, and says ILCOR’s 2008 sign is similar to it but not the same. A survey of 1,895 adults in July 2015 found that fewer than half recognised and understood the 2006 sign. The redesigned UK sign replaces the lightning bolt with a stylised ECG heart trace, carries the words “Defibrillator – Heart Restarter”, and adds a figure lying down, showing where the pads go.

Look-alike: the first aid sign

Both are green safe condition signs in ISO 7010. The first aid sign (E003) is a white cross alone; the AED sign (E010) is a heart with a flash.