# What is the origin of the biohazard symbol?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 25, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602 "2001-09-25T01:08:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zor)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602/1 "2001-09-25T01:08:13Z")

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I’ve looked all over the place for information on the origin of the biohazard symbol, but I just can’t find any useful information at all. You can see an example of the symbol [here](http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/44/446.html).

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**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602/2 "2001-09-25T02:06:31Z")

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Well…according to [this](http://www-library.itsi.disa.mil/tafim/tafim3.0/pages/volume8/v8_7.htm) the symbol is arbitrary - no correpondence between the symobl and what it represents. (look for “biohazard” on that page)

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**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602/3 "2001-09-25T02:16:15Z")

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It was designed in 1966, according to [this article](http://www.cytopathnet.org/asct/asct_journal_of_cytotechnology_v1_2.htm) from the ASCT Journal of Cytotechnology (the biohazard article is about 1/8 of the way down the page.

According to the article a lot of thought went into the design.

Arjuna34

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**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/83602/4 "2001-09-25T02:43:58Z")

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From the above linked article:

> [@](#):
>
> In order of importance, the symbol must be: 1.striking in form to draw immediate attention; 2.unique and unambiguous; 3. quickly recognizable and easily recalled;4.easily stenciled; 5.symmetrical in order to appear identical from all angles; 6.acceptable to groups of varying ethnic backgrounds. Based on these criteria, Dow artists created more than 40 symbols of which 6 were selected for testing… First, a set of 24 symbols was tested for uniqueness and a “meaningfulness score” was determined for each symbol… In the second phase of the study (one week after the initial survey) the same subjects were again tested for “memorability”… Two symbols received identical memorability scores and one of these had the lowest meaningful score. It was selected as the one symbol best qualified as being both unique and memorable[.]