What are tactile triangle labels?
Certain chemicals and hazardous substances that are sold to the general public, in the EU, must, by law, have a tactile triangle label to alert the blind, or partially sighted, that they are handling a dangerous product. This applies to all products that are labelled ‘toxic’ ‘very toxic’, ‘corrosive’, ‘harmful’, ‘highly flammable’ or ‘extremely flammable’ and also applies to some aerosols and E-Cigarette products.
The labels take the form of a raised triangle on a transparent, plastic substrate and they must be manufactured in accordance with EN ISO 11683, which stipulates that they may be shown as either:
- A raised equilateral triangle in a frame 16 – 20mm long and 1.5 – 1.9mm thick. (the corners of the triangle must be as sharp as possible and the triangle must be raised 0.25 – 0.5mm above the surface of the label)
- A smaller raised equilateral triangle in a frame 8 -10mm long and 0.8 – 1.2mm thick
- A very small solid triangle with sides 3 – 4mm long
- If the packaging is physically too small to apply the standard sizes, a three-dot symbol may be used: 3 dots each of truncated cone shape, equally spaced. The diameter of the dot must be between 1.8 – 2.2mm and have a height of between 0.25 – 0.5mm. The dots must be between 3 – 9mm apart (centre to centre)
Where should they be placed?
If the packaging has a base, the tactile triangle labels should be placed on an upright handling surface near the edge, and the apex of the triangle must be positioned within 50mm of the bottom of the pack, or as close as possible to the lid, if there is no bottom.
If the packaging doesn’t have a base (such as tubes or cartridges) then the tactile triangle should be stuck on the shoulder around the tube nozzle. On aerosols, the tactile warning label must be positioned where the finger is placed to operate the spray.
The tactile warning label must not be placed on surfaces which are removed during normal use, they are not required on outer packaging such as cardboard boxes protecting glass bottles and they must not be placed near any other embossed or raised patterns that could cause confusion.
Click here for more information about the labelling of E-Cigarettes.
The requirements to include tactile warning labels as a part of packaging requirements are determined by either classification under a certain hazard class/category, or by certain substances at specified concentrations. (Details appear in the CLP Regulation, Annex II).
Our tactile triangle labels have an 18mm raised triangle (point to point) and comply to BS EN ISO 11683:1997 using permanent adhesive.
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Contact us for details if you want them to be added to your product labels.