NFPA Hazard Identification System
NFPA hazard identification system is developed by The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to indicate the hazardousness of the material and the severity of the effects associated with the respective hazard as a result of accidental exposure during an emergency situation.
The NFPA hazard Identification system is simple, composed and easy to understand due to the use of colour and text and number to code hazards and associated severity of specific material. The system indicates hazards associated with health, flammability, stability and special hazards results due to accidents such as fire, spill, explosion or leakage.
The system composed of four colours codes includes Blue, Red, Yellow and White, each colour filled in a diamond shape and arrange all four together in a large diamond shape. The numbers in each of the three diamond are used to rate the severity of the respective hazard. The range of number is )to four where 0 indicates no hazard associated with the material and 4 indicates the extreme danger/highly severity of hazard associated with the material. The fourth diamond is rated with special characters to indicate the level of danger associated with the special material.
It is important to understand that the NFPA diamond is not a material safety data sheet it is developed to assist the first responder in case of any emergency. Therefore the location of NFPA diamond is on containers, tanks and on the doors of storage rooms with the materials, this will help in emergency response.
RED Diamond Fire Hazard (Flash Point)
- 4 Below 73 °F
- 3 Below 100 °F
- 2 Above 100 °F
- Not Exceeding 200 °F
- 1 Above 200 °F
- 0 Will Not Burn
The red diamond indicates fire and the scale range is from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the material will not burn while 4 indicates highly flammable material e.g the material flashpoint is 73 °F. For example, for an ethanol tank, the red diamond will be scaled at 4.
YELLOW Diamond Reactivity
- 4 May Detonate or Highly Reactive
- 3 Shock and Heat; May Detonate
- 2 Violent Chemical Change
- 1 Unstable if Heated
- 0 Stable
The yellow diamond indicates stability or reactivity of the material and the scale range is from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the material is stable while 4 indicates that the material can be detonated or highly reactive. For example, the chlorine tank, with the yellow diamond will be scaled at 4.
BLUE Diamond Health Hazard
- 4 Deadly
- 3 Extreme Danger
- 2 Hazardous
- 1 Slightly Hazardous
- 0 Normal Material
The blue diamond indicates the health hazard of the material and the scale range is from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the normal material, while 4 indicates that the material can be deadly or poisonous. For example, the container of COVID -19 Patients sample, with the blue diamond will be scaled at 4.
WHITE Diamond Special Hazard
- ACID – Acid
- ALK – Alkali
- COR – Corrosive
- OXY – Oxidizer
- ☢ – Radioactive
- ₩ – Use No Water
The white diamond indicates special hazard associate with the material and the scale with special characters some of them includes ₩, ☢ and OX. For example, Tc 99 radioactive container will be marked with ☢ which indicates the presence of a radioactive substance.
A sample presentation for safety professionals is given below which will help in training purposes, the editable presentation can be requested in comments section by providing the required information.
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