Provenance

Reference data from EU CLP Annex VI and published regulations — verify against your supplier's SDS before use.

Build a label

Prevention · precautionary statement

P264 — Wash hands thoroughly after handling.

Prevention statements describe how to keep the harm from happening at all. 661 substances with a harmonised EU classification carry this code.

EU CLP: currentUS OSHA HazCom: currentUS HazCom 2012: currentUN GHS: current

01 · Wording

What P264 says

Official

Wash thoroughly after handling. The wording is incomplete on purpose. Which body parts to wash. In practice this is almost always hands, sometimes hands and forearms or face.

Typical

Wash hands thoroughly after handling. How it usually reads on a label. We show it separately rather than presenting a filled-in blank as the regulation's own text.

Category

Prevention · GHS revision 9

Reading the official wording. is a blank the supplier fills in — not a truncated sentence.· [square brackets] mark a part printed only when it applies. · A slash offers a choice, as in POISON CENTER/doctor.

Does your label need P264? That depends on the hazard classes of your product, on whether it goes to the public or to professionals, and on what else is already on the label — Annex IV column 5 lets one statement remove another. Work it out from a classification →

02 · Languages

P264 in the 24 official EU languages

A label put on the market in an EU country must carry the wording of that country's own language version of CLP — not a translation of the English one. These 24 lines are quoted from the consolidated regulation, Annex IV, and are the text to print.

LanguageOfficial wording of P264
BG български Bulgarian Да се измие… старателно след употреба.
ES español Spanish Lavarse … concienzudamente tras la manipulación.
CS čeština Czech Po manipulaci důkladně omyjte …
DA dansk Danish Vask … grundigt efter brug.
DE Deutsch German Nach Gebrauch … gründlich waschen.
ET eesti Estonian Pärast käitlemist pesta hoolega …
EL ελληνικά Greek Πλύνετε … σχολαστικά μετά το χειρισμό.
EN English English Wash … thoroughly after handling.
FR français French Se laver … soigneusement après manipulation.
GA Gaeilge Irish Nigh … go lánchúramach tar éis láimhsithe.
HR hrvatski Croatian Nakon uporabe temeljito oprati …
IT italiano Italian Lavare accuratamente … dopo l’uso.
LV latviešu Latvian Pēc izmantošanas … kārtīgi nomazgāt.
LT lietuvių Lithuanian Po naudojimo kruopščiai nuplauti …
HU magyar Hungarian A használatot követően a(z) … -t alaposan meg kell mosni.
MT Malti Maltese Aħsel … sew wara li timmaniġġjah.
NL Nederlands Dutch Na het werken met dit product … grondig wassen.
PL polski Polish Dokładnie umyć … po użyciu.
PT português Portuguese Lavar … cuidadosamente após manuseamento.
RO română Romanian Spălați-vă … bine după utilizare.
SK slovenčina Slovak Po manipulácii starostlivo umyte…
SL slovenščina Slovenian Po uporabi temeljito umiti …
FI suomi Finnish Pese … huolellisesti käsittelyn jälkeen.
SV svenska Swedish Tvätta … grundligt efter användning.

Source: CELEX:02008R1272-20260501, Annex IV. © European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu — only the electronic Official Journal of the European Union is authentic. Irish is one of the 24 official languages and its H and P texts are printed inside the multilingual Annex tables, but no consolidated CLP has ever been published in Irish — which is why an Irish-primary label cannot be built here.

Where P264 is current

GHS is a United Nations model text, revised every two years, and each jurisdiction adopts a revision on its own timetable. A code can be legally current in one system and deleted in another — that is normal, not an error.

JurisdictionBasisStatus of P264
EU CLP Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 CLP Annex IV, Part 2 (consolidated) Current
US OSHA HazCom 29 CFR 1910.1200 Appendix C UN GHS Rev.7 (final rule of 20 May 2024) Current
US HazCom 2012 legacy · GHS Rev.3 UN GHS Rev.3, Annex 3 Current
UN GHS Rev.11 (2025) UN GHS Rev.11, Annex 3 Current

Currently in force under: EU CLP, US OSHA HazCom, US HazCom 2012, UN GHS. Sources: EU CLP · US OSHA HazCom · US HazCom 2012 · UN GHS

Substances carrying P264

Every entry whose harmonised CLP Annex VI classification includes this precautionary statement. Substances with a reference page here open on this site; the rest open on ghssymbols.com. Of these, 63 are group entries such as “beryllium compounds” or “salts of hydrazine” — Annex VI gives them no CAS number, so they are listed by Index No and have no page of their own.

661 of 661 shown

Nothing matches that filter.

All precautionary statements

The full list of P-codes with the jurisdiction switch lives on the precautionary statements hub. For the hazard side, see hazard statements (H-codes).

Wording quoted from the regulation named above. Substance counts come from harmonised classifications in CLP Annex VI — the statements on a real product also depend on the supplier's own classification. Always check the supplier safety data sheet.

Get the free GHS / CLP / OSHA deadline calendar

Verified 2026–2029 compliance dates in one PDF — plus alerts when the rules change.