Effective Communication of Warnings in the Workplace: Avoiding Injuries in Working with Industrial Materials‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION A principal purpose of product liability is to provide incentives for increasing product safety and better informing consumers, workers, and other end-users so that they may avoid potential hazards. To meet this goal, the law generally places liability on the entity best able to prevent the potential harm posed by a product. (1) Product warnings offer a relatively low cost means of informing the product's user of potential hazards--in effect, recasting the user as the least-cost avoider of injury. (2) Because there may be many risks associated with a product's use, some more probable or more serious than others, and because users have limits on what they will read and remember, sound product liability law delicately balances the practicality and comprehensiveness of warnings. This balance furthers the overriding policy objective of preventing harm to the product's user. It also indicates who should bear responsibility for communicating warnings. (3) In many instances, the product liability system appropriately and efficiently allocates liability; however, sometimes it proves ineffective in cases involving industrial materials, such as chemicals, metals, sand or plastics, which can have numerous uses in the workplace and are incorporated into various products. Courts, in some instances, have held manufacturers and suppliers of such raw materials liable for warning end-users to the same degree as manufacturers of consumer products. (4) This has occurred despite considerable differences in the ability of these manufacturers and suppliers to effectively warn end-users.