The IAEA has released a new warning symbol to supplement the standard radiation trefoil to warn folks — well, that radiation can seriously mess you up.
The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance.
[…] The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups – mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female – to ensure that its message of “danger – stay away” was crystal clear and understood by all.
Well, yeah, I guess it’s clear (if butt-ugly), but … how much of a problem do we have with folks wandering by “large radiation sources” who aren’t already educated that it’s a bad idea or who don’t know what the radiation trefoil means?
(via BoingBoing)
Plus, since the actual information-carrying icons are smaller relative to the triangle, you have to get closer to read it, thus running afoul of that ol’ inverse-square law.
“Hmmm … hard to read what the sign says. I’ll light a match. G – U – N – P – O – W –” BANG!
Well, the new symbol shows that radiation will either kill you or give you a really huge… Oh, wait, that’s an arrow, isn’t it?
I thought it meant that radiation irradiates the dead and the living alike.
Either that, or radiation has something to do with running away from Pirates.