GHS Pictogram Review: Skull and Crossbones

The acute toxicity, or skull and crossbones, pictogram is used to represent chemicals with the highest levels of acute toxicity.  That means that these chemicals have an immediate and severe (even lethal) effect on human health after a single or short-term oral, dermal, or inhalation exposure to a substance or mixture.

Substances can be allocated to one of five toxicity categories based on acute toxicity by the three possible exposure routes based on numeric criteria developed from toxicity testing.  The information provided in the table below can help you understand the risks posed by each of the five toxicity categories and how each category gets identified on both chemical labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

Acute Toxicity Label Elements