A warning label is a

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

attached to a product, or contained in a product's

instruction manual An owner's manual (also called an instruction manual or a user guide) is an instructional book or booklet that is supplied with almost all technologically advanced consumer products such as vehicles, home appliances and computer periphera ...

, warning the user about

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

s associated with its use, and may include restrictions by the

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

or seller on certain uses. Some of them are legal requirements (such as health warnings on tobacco products). Most of them are placed to limit civil liability in

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

s against the item's manufacturer or seller (see

product liability Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has ...

). That sometimes results in labels which for some people seem to state the obvious. Lack of a warning label can become an informational defect, which is a type of

product defect A product defect is any characteristic of a product which hinders its usability for the purpose for which it was designed and manufactured. Product defects arise most prominently in legal contexts regarding product safety, where the term is ap ...

. Warning labels are found on various product packagings, such as

chemicals A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

(flammable, pesticide, poisons, etc.), batteries,

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

and other unhealthy foods.

Regulation by country

Chile

European Economic Area

In the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

, a product containing hazardous mixtures must have a

unique formula identifier The unique formula identifier (UFI) is a code printed on products with hazardous mixtures in the European Economic Area (EEA), meant to help calls to poison control centers to determine the contents. The UFI is mandated in the European Economic A ...

(UFI) code. This is not a warning label per se, but a code that helps

poison control centre A poison control center is a medical service that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. Poison control centers answer questions ...

s identify the exact formula of a hazardous product.

Mexico

United States

In the United States, warning labels have been instituted under a number of different government organizations. For instance, the

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (abbreviated as FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C) is a set of laws passed by the United States Congress in 1938 giving authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of ...

. Cigarettes were not required to have warning labels in the United States until Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) in 1965. Other organizations that create label standards in the US — the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...

(OSHA) and

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organiz ...

(ANSI) — govern their use. The US organizations pull from international organizations such as the

Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is an internationally agreed-upon standard managed by the United Nations that was set up to replace the assortment of hazardous material classification and labellin ...

and the

International Standards Organization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

Chemical hazard level warning labels

In the United States or elsewhere, the terms Danger, Warning and Caution are regulated by the

(GHS)

ANSI Z535 ANSI Z535 are American-developed Technical standard, standards designed to improve the identification of potential hazards to workers and/or property. The identifications are called Hazardous Communication (HazCom). ANSI Z535 sets the design and ...

. Graphic symbols are regulated by

ISO 7010 ISO 7010 is an International Organization for Standardization technical standard for graphical hazard symbols on hazard and safety signs, including those indicating emergency exits. It uses colours and principles set out in ISO 3864 for the ...

References

External links

{{Authority control Product liability Safety Labels