Editing 2038: Hazard Symbol

<noinclude>:''"2038", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2038", see [[607: 2038]].''</noinclude>

{{comic
| number    = 2038
| date      = August 27, 2018
| title     = Hazard Symbol
| image     = hazard_symbol.png
| titletext = The warning diamond on the Materials Safety Data Sheet for this stuff just has the "😰" emoji in all four fields.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Hazard symbol}}s are often required to indicate certain threats to human health. These symbols are typically black symbols on yellow backgrounds, a contrast typically associated with danger even in nature, a phenomenon known as {{w|Aposematism|aposematism}}. However, these symbols also need to be easy to interpret. Therefore, they have simple, recognizable shapes that are internationally uniform and intended to be well-understood.

This comic inverts this latter expectation, by combining multiple hazard symbols into one, creating something that is unique, and very hard to understand. In practice, if such an object were to be labelled, the five hazard symbols would be separated, each in their own triangle. 

The hazard symbols, as noted in the transcript, are {{w|biohazard symbol|biohazard}} ☣, {{w|radiation symbol|radiation}} ☢, slip and fall hazard symbol, laser hazard, and {{w|High_voltage#Safety|high voltage symbol}} ⚡︎.

Another ridiculous aspect of this comic is how these hazards interact with each other, and their attendant risks. Radioactive waste is usually a show-stopper on its own, but bio hazards, lasers, and high-voltage situations usually scare people more than slippery floors. This is probably a joke on how some hazard symbols are worse than others. Some of these would also cancel each other out: both high voltage and lasers have a tendency to harm microorganisms that might be bio-hazards, and most radioactive substances are solid, thus they are hard to slip on. While they do form compounds which could potentially be liquid and therefore slippery, many of these would kill the pathogens. For example, {{w|Uranium hexafluoride}} is a powerful oxidizer that would destroy most germs.

Biohazard and radioactivity could be combined as radioactive isotopes of Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen can be substituted for their stable counterparts, and high voltage electricity can be applied to anything.  However laser hazard and slipping hazard seem to be mutually exclusive as the former applies to devices and the latter to substances.  One possibly "solution" could be a room sized gas discharge tube filled with a radioactive biohazard that partly condenses and makes the floor slippery. 

The title text refers to another unsafe subversion of expectations, in this case, against the [[wikipedia:NFPA 704|NFPA 704]] "fire diamond". These are the colorful diamond-shaped symbols often found on the back of tankers, but they are also necessary inclusions on materials safety datasheets. These symbols give numeric indication of the hazardous nature of the material, in three different respects (flammability, health, and reactivity), in addition to providing space for an extra warning on the bottom, typically in the form of one or more letters. Using an emoji instead of numbers and letters would defeat the purpose of the fire diamond, as it would only give a qualitative indication of the danger ("very dangerous"), and additionally, could be very easily mistaken for a 0 (meaning safe).

Note, Material Safety Data Sheets have been deprecated in favor of SDS (Safety Data Sheets) in order to come into compliance with the [https://www.msdsonline.com/resources/regulatory-information/ghs/ GHS (Globally Harmonized System)].

😰 is described by {{w|Emojipedia}} as "[https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]".  As an additional joke, using this symbol in the fire diamond could be an expression of how awful this mysterious substance is.

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows symbols, drawn in black on top of a yellow background.]
:[One large symbol embeds four others and it's composed of the outline of three overlapping and outwards narrowing rings arranged by 120 degrees.]
:[The symbol at the center shows at the same orientation three blades with a small stepped circle in the middle.]
:[Inside the ring on top is a symbol of a backwards falling human with a small line depicting the ground.]
:[The ring on the right below the center contains a circle with radiant alternating smaller and longer lines around. One more longer line points toward the center of the image.]
:[Embedded into the left lower ring is a bolt with an arrow pointing left downwards.]

:[Caption below:]
:It's important to know the international warning symbol for radioactive high-voltage laser-emitting biohazards that coat the floor and make it slippery.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Science]]