Origin of the trefoil radiation warning sign | Hacker News Reader

Origin of the trefoil radiation warning sign

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Oddly enough I addressed this in my motion graphics lecture today. It was in relation to this information visualization issue:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-time_nuclear_waste_warn...

More material here:

https://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of...

This type of problem (warning future generations about the dangers of radioactivity) is a brilliant limit-test for the general problems of information visualization.

The radioactive warning trefoil has an ignoble history of being unequal to the task.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

Hence its semi-recent update (ISO 21482).

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/new-symbol-launched-war...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-time_nuclear_waste_warnin...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

I always wonder how these approaches can deal with:

- people who want to use the evil stuff to kill their enemies

- people who want to be heroes and defeat the evil demons once and for all

- telling people to reproduce the message for future generations and capturing the key elements of the message

The ISO 21482 symbol isn't precisely an update to the trefoil. It's got a more restricted use case -- it's only intended for use inside devices which contain large radioactive sources, as a warning to technicians (or scrap-metal dealers!) to not go any further. It's not meant to be used anywhere that would be visible during normal operation.

Related: The origin of the biohazard symbol https://web.archive.org/web/20110716160837/http://www.hms.ha...

> We wanted something that was memorable but meaningless, so we could educate people as to what it means.

That is an incredible statement. I would think you’d want a symbol that represents danger to be intuitive.

Probably wanted to avoid something you could be used to, or confuse or dilute with some other form of danger. I think they wanted to make sure this particular form of danger was known to be especially silent, horrible, and potent.

It did not turn out meaningless though. Looks like a virus with spikes.

> Blue was not supposed to be used on warning signs, and it faded, especially outdoors.

This line gives a glimpse into how much various seemingly arbitrary aspects of our world are actually the way they are for good reason, and how much cultural knowledge is behind it all.

Naturally, when reading this line I searched for "UV fades blue" for more info, came up with someone asking why blue fades less[0].

The depth of knowledge embedded in our culture is amazing, and the Internet is here to reveal so much of it if you look around.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/oibm9/why_is_bl...

So does blue fade more or less in the outdoors?

No idea. :-)

I'm guessing the pigments they used on signage back in the day faded more, but in general blue will fade less.

Regarding the shape of the symbol, I've always been convinced that it was inspired (even if unconsciously) by the US Army Cannon Heater's feed door draft plate: https://picturearchive.gunauction.com/2450084810/12565270/ge...

Or the dial thing on a grill, or tape reels. It definitely evokes rotation.

Interestingly, artistic depictions of the radiation warning sign (e.g. in Fallout or Stalker) often show it upside down/wrong. I assume this is because of the unnerving effect it has when looking at it depicted the right way.

Maybe artists think of it like a solid object and use the more stable orientation.

I half thought it was a fan.

That's pretty common. Other common interpretations of the symbol include a flower, or a windmill.

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