Must the context be considered when applying generic safety symbols: A case study in flammable contact adhesives

Abstract

Several household fires have occurred in the United States and Canada when flammable contact adhesive vapors were ignited by nearby pilot lights. While the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sale of extremely flammable adhesives in the U.S., its Canadian counterparts have focused more attention on product labeling. This field experiment examined the impact of the flame and poison warning symbols prescribed by the Canadian Government for a flammable adhesive. The results suggest that although the generic meanings of these two symbols are well understood, people have difficulty inferring the specific safety precautions most necessary for this particular product, apparently because they do not realize that adhesive vapors, rather than the adhesive itself, pose the fire hazard. Users also tended to overestimate the significance of the toxicity hazard. This incorrect assessment was corrected for a subset of subjects by reading the product specific text provided on the back of the container. Implications for the design and evaluation of safety symbols are provided as are recommendations for modifying several features of the adhesive's label.