• Question: why do people use a skull and cross bones on the bottles of toxic stuff?

    Asked by pepper11 to Hywel, Joseph on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Dr Hywel Jones

      Dr Hywel Jones answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Thats a great Q. But not one that’s really about science as such. Its an area known as semiotics and its about why we associate certain images with certain things. For example; why when there is a level crossing do we use a picture of a steam train and why are speed cameras represented by the picture of a really old style of camera that no one has used for 50 years.
      To answer your question then: its probably because its a well known symbol that most people associate with death and most people would therefore know that it symbolises something dangerous. There is probably a committee somewhere that decides this stuff.

    • Photo: Joseph Cook

      Joseph Cook answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      The skull and crossbones symbolise danger and death to most people, so they are used as a warning on bottles of toxic substances so that people can quickly identify the contents as dangerous.

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