COSHH signage is the visible end of a control programme and the cheapest part of it, which is why it is so often the part a firm does first and best. Containers keep their supplier label, decanted containers get one of their own, the store gets a sign on the door and incompatible substances get kept apart. All of that is worth doing and none of it is an assessment, so this page is about what each of them is actually for and where they sit against everything else.
The container label is the supplier's; the decanted label is yours
A container arrives labelled by whoever placed the substance on the market, carrying the pictograms, the signal word and the hazard and precautionary statements. That label stays on. The moment somebody decants into a spray bottle or a jug, the labelling duty becomes yours in practice: the second container needs to carry the same hazard information, because the person who picks it up in six months will not remember what went into it. Unlabelled decants are the single most common finding in a store cupboard.
What a store sign is for, and what it is not
A sign on a chemical store door tells somebody arriving at it what class of hazard is inside, which matters for access control and for the fire service. It does not tell anyone what to do about a spill, and it does not discharge a duty. Treat it as one line of an arrangement whose other lines are segregation, ventilation, bunding, access and a current inventory, and put the effort where the exposure is rather than where the signage is.
Signs and labels are the bottom of the hierarchy
The order that reduces harm is eliminate, substitute, engineer, change how the work is done, then protect and inform. Signage and labelling sit in the last band, which does not make them optional and does make them the wrong place to start. A store with immaculate labelling and an unassessed process next door has spent its effort where it is visible rather than where it is exposing people, and that is a pattern an inspector recognises quickly.
The inventory behind the signage is the part that has to be current
Every sign and label assumes somebody knows what is in the store. That knowledge decays: substances get swapped, a supplier reformulates, a job brings something new in and nobody tells the person who keeps the file. The free COSHH assessment worksheet on this site sizes what keeping that inventory current actually costs, including the share of substances whose safety data sheet you cannot currently find, which is the number that decides how long the tidy-up takes.
Questions people ask about coshh signs
What COSHH signs do I need on a chemical store?
Enough that somebody arriving knows what class of hazard is inside and who may enter. The specific signage depends on what you hold and where, and it should follow from your assessment rather than from a signage catalogue. If your signs were chosen before your assessment, they are decoration.
Do I have to label a decanted container?
In practice yes. The hazard information has to travel with the substance, and a spray bottle with no label is a substance nobody can assess at the point of use. Small self-adhesive labels carrying the pictograms and the product name are the cheapest control in this whole area.
Are COSHH symbols and the hazard pictograms the same thing?
People use the terms interchangeably. Strictly the pictograms come from the classification and labelling rules a supplier follows, and COSHH is the separate duty on you to assess and control exposure. Recognising a pictogram is the start of the enquiry, not the end of it.