I'm guessing it's short for "If you don't know what this is and you find it outside of any shielded box, shit has gone very wrong and you should not be near this, let alone touch it". The probably best way to get people to stop touching it is to suggest that it poses an acute threat, hence the urgency in the phrasing "drop and run".

So if you're operating a device wherein it's properly contained, you don't see the label. If you're removing it while protected appropriately, you already know the label doesn't apply to you. If you know how to handle it, you don't need instructions.

I am guessing the idea is to induce terror in the holder such that, if they did not intend to hold a vial of Co 60, they would not mess with it further. It conveys the appropriate level of danger, if not an appropriate set of handling instructions.

Edit: So I looked it up and I misunderstood: if you can read that (especially by the blue glow) then its rapidly killing you. I really don't understand how dangerous some radiation is lmao.

If your are very lucky, you can find one by the side of the road in Australia.

"Something something - anything if you're brave enough"

Haha good one. "Punny answer."

There's always a relevant xkcd.

If it's actively glowing blue, I don't think it's safe to handle.

Somebody casted Repair on the rod

What if it was stored in a fridge

Hmm, I think as a DM I would roll an arcana check to see if the wizard would conceivably have heard of radiation from arcane studies. It's reasonable to assume people with arcane knowledge would be the first to hear about the strange metal chunks that everyone keeps dying around. One of them would have had to have come up with a word, if not some variation on "death cursed"