Hazmat Warning - Hazardous Material Clothing, Apparel, and Gear

Hazmat Warning

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has a system (careful this link is a 383-page PDF file that opens a new window) of signs and placards to identify hazardous materials and dangerous chemicals in transit. This is supposed to warn people on the roads of potential dangers.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has a system of signs and codes that identifes fire, heatlth, explosive and other hazards in buildings and structures before they are entered. This is supposed to warn firefighters of potential dangers when they are responding to an emergency.

These systems are great - simple, descriptive, effective - ways to protect people from necessary dangers present in our environment. Yes, transporting gasoline is dangerous, but if we didn't do it, only the people who lived within driving distance of an oil field could have cars. And a lot of those oil fields are a long way from where a lot of people live. Like Texas. Or the Middle East. And who the hell wants to live in either of those places.

While these systems are a great idea, they don't really go far enough. Organic Peroxide is a hazardous material when it's in a tanker truck and has to be marked as a potential danger according to the DOT, but when it's in the hair of a woman in a bar after midnight, it doesn't have to be marked at all. And, it's still a hazard, just a different kind. Finding a way to mark this kind of this hazard could avert some real disasters.

We're working to extend the conventional hazmat marking system to handle situations ranging from the bleached blonde at the bar to the flatulent guy on the subway by issuing new hazmat warning codes. Send your suggestions to info@hazmatwarning.com. We'd like to hear what you think.

The new hazmat warning codes will be updated to include the personal and social and intellectual threats that these hazardous materials, and others like them, pose to society. We're extending the signs and codes to classify books, movies, tv shows, magazines, ideas and even people.

Everything should be labeled appropriately.

For questions, problems and bulk and custom orders (including shirts in other colors) email info@hazmatwarning.com.