[TheForge] Interesting Article

[Bruce Freeman]

Mike,

Blame the lawyers.

If you have a dog that will bite people, the last thing you should do
is put up a sign "Vicious Dog" because then if your dog DOES bite
someone, you've effectively admitted culpability - end of story.  If
you put up a sign, "Guard Dog on Duty" and it bites someone, than,
perhaps, the case will be adjudicated on the facts.

Likewise, don't name your dog "Wolf."  Name him "Wolfgang Amadeus" and
call him "Wolf" for short.  (True story!)

Therefore it remains necessary for those of us who know the hazards of
this or that to tell folks the true stories.   The labels will never
do it because no company wants to admit culpability.  There is no
chemical that can't be used safely.  The protections one must take may
be cost prohibitive, however.  I have a friend who routinely uses HF
to etch glass, and has no problem handling it.  She is most definately
aware of the danger, and deals with it.

The case of Karen Wetterhahn shows why each of us must be responsible
for our own safety.  No one else can possibly understand exactly how
we will be using chemicals.  Or, for that matter, what physical
hazards we'll let ourselves be exposed to.

One thing I keep coming back to is that experience is NOT a good
teacher with regard to safety for the simple reason that accidents are
fairly rare.  You must think through what MIGHT happen, judge the
probability of it happening and the consequences should it happen, and
work to prevent those occurrences that have significant probability
and consequences.  Just because it has never happened yet, doesn't
mean it can't happen and won't ruin your day (life?) if it does.
Experience may help you judge consequences, but experience is a very
poor teacher of probability because one chance in ten or one-hundred
SEEMS low to use, but if that's a measure of deaths, think again.

Bruce

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Mike Spencer<mspencer at tallships.ca> wrote:
>

>
> Enough of those scenarios and we don't find safety warning credible
> even when they say, "Get this on your fingers and you will die in 10
> minutes" or "breathe these fumes and your liver will turn to compost
> before bedtime."
>

>
>
> - Mike
>
>
> [1] E.g. dimethylmercury: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn
>
> --
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.



-- 
Bruce
NJ

The total lack of evidence is the surest sign that the conspiracy is working.