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Two green signs of grouped figures that mean two different steps in an evacuation.
A building's assembly point is a safe place to stand once you are outside. A ship's muster station is a staffed step in a procedure: you are counted against a roll, briefed, and if necessary allocated to a survival craft, which is why it has a letter or a number and appears on your cabin door card. Both are green, both show grouped figures, and both are called an assembly point in ordinary speech — and treating a muster station as somewhere merely to wait is the misunderstanding drills exist to correct.
One is a staffed station on a ship with a roll call; the other is a safe place outside a building.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Assembly point symbol | Muster station symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Symmetry | radial | none |
| Assembly point symbol | Muster station symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens there | You wait somewhere safe | You are counted, briefed and given instructions |
| Staffed | Usually not | Always |
| Identified by | Its location | A letter or number printed on your cabin card and key |
| Standard | ISO 7010 E007 | IMO life-saving appliance signs and ISO 24409 |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Muster station symbol — One is a staffed station on a ship with a roll call; the other is a safe place outside a building. | Commonly confused with Assembly point symbol — One is a staffed station on a ship with a roll call; the other is a safe place outside a building. |
ISO 7010, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-02
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that a sign has a standard reference and a defined shape and colour — E003 for first aid, E010 for a defibrillator. The catalogue of registered signs and their reference numbers is public even where the standard text is not. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.
IMO Resolution A.1116(30), Escape route signs and equipment location markings
International Maritime Organization · retrieved 2026-08-22
The resolution text is not reproduced here and has NOT BEEN READ in full. Registered so records can state that a life-saving appliance marking is defined by the IMO rather than by convention, and which broad class it belongs to. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.
ISO 24409, Ships and marine technology — Design, location and use of shipboard safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-22
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so shipboard safety marks can be attributed to the standard that governs them rather than described as generic safety signs. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.
The becquerel counts nuclear decays — one per second — and says nothing about harm. The sievert weights absorbed energy by the kind of radiation delivering it, and so estimates biological effect. A becquerel of one isotope and a becquerel of another can carry very different risk, which is exactly why exposure limits and medical doses are stated in sieverts and never in becquerels.
Count what is around the centre. Three solid blades radiating from a small disc is ionising radiation; three broken rings overlapping a central circle is biological hazard. They are the same size, the same colours and the same three-fold arrangement, which is why signage catalogues themselves get them wrong — and the responses could not be less alike. One calls for distance, shielding and time; the other for containment, disinfection and a disposal route.
The plain black flag excludes the competitor: their race is over. The black flag with an orange disc reports a mechanical problem that endangers others and sends the driver to the pits to have it fixed, after which they may rejoin. Both are shown with a number board, both are black, and confusing them costs a competitor a race they could have finished.
They are alternatives, not a pair. The double square means the appliance is protected by double or reinforced insulation and needs no earth connection, which is why it can legitimately have a two-pin plug. The earth symbol marks a terminal that must be connected, because that appliance relies on earthing instead.