Keep People Out of Wash, Label Warns

[snopes]

Don't clean your kids in the washing machine. Don't dry your cell phone in the microwave. And be sure not to read the phone book while driving. Those are among the winning entries in this year's Wacky Warning Label Contest, run by an anti-lawsuit group.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070105/D8MFAGLO4.html

[geminilee]

I personally like the justification given for the washing machine one:

A spokeswoman for the manufacturer said the washer warning label is far from wacky.

"A front loader is just at the right height - speaking now as a mother and not a corporate spokeswoman - for a 4-year-old," said Patti Andresen-Shew, marketing director for Alliance Laundry Systems LLC in Ripon, Wis.

She said there have been lawsuits filed against companies - "fortunately not ours" - after small children got into coin-operated laundry equipment and an older child started the machine.

While this may have happened, will a warning label really help? How many four year olds will read it and then think "Oh, I shouldn't do this."?

[snopes]

While this may have happened, will a warning label really help?

Yes, it will help absolve the company of liability when some stupid person does it anyway and then tries to sue the manufacturer.

- snopes

[nancyfancypants]

While this may have happened, will a warning label really help? How many four year olds will read it and then think "Oh, I shouldn't do this."?


I want to know how many four year-olds can read it.

Seriously, Snopes is right. This protects the company from a frivolous lawsuit filed by a parent who wasn't keeping an eye on the kids.

Originally Posted by nancyfancypants

While this may have happened, will a warning label really help? How many four year olds will read it and then think "Oh, I shouldn't do this."?


I want to know how many four year-olds can read it.

Seriously, Snopes is right. This protects the company from a frivolous lawsuit filed by a parent who wasn't keeping an eye on the kids.

When I was in grade school, one family had 10 children. It was one of the little girls' turn to do the wash and she fell in the machine and broke her leg. This was back in the 60s so the machine probably wasn't the type that turned off when you lifted the lid.

[Hot Toast]

While a lot of these warnings might seem ultra obvious, and therefore redundant. I was reminded while reading of the local case where a young adult put his girlfriend's toddler in the tumble drier to dry her.(She got some pretty bad burns, suprise, suprise). So some people do need these warnings!

[Judecat]

You really think he didn't know that you don't put babies in the dryier if they are wet. Was he raised by wolves? How do you live long enough to get to be a young adult and not have found out that's not how you dry people? Is that how his parents dried him?

I can imagine it it was maybe a 5 year old -- but not anyone old enough to be left alone with someones baby.

I am greatly amused (and slightly annoyed) at some warning lables -- especially the one that tells me not to huff the white out.

[MichiganGirl]

My sister put me in a dryer at the laundry mat when I was young, but she didn't turn it on. Maybe that's why I don't like small spaces lol.

[Hyper Squirrel]

I once had a stuffed animal whose tag mentioned not to put it in the microwave.


Hyper "But how will I cook my stuffed zebra?" Squirrel

[Spikey]

Originally Posted by Hyper Squirrel

I once had a stuffed animal whose tag mentioned not to put it in the microwave.


Hyper "But how will I cook my stuffed zebra?" Squirrel

Ok, it may seem a bit of a sily one, but I can think of a reason there.

You can buy these things (they feel like bean bags) that you can microwave, and then use like a hot water bottle (they heat up and stay hot for ages). Often they are woven into the shape of an animal. I suppose there could be potential confusion there (and a following lawsuit).

[Izzy Quigley]

My favorite warning label ever is one I found on a styrofoam box of nightcrawlers: "Contents not for human consumption."

[frogpond]

I had a hair dryer that warned Do not use while sleeping.

[Roadie]

My bathmat has a warning "This Side Down" running in between the suction cups. Good thing, too, or I would have thought those cups were meant to stick the mat to my feet rather than the tub.

[surfcitydogdad]

Stupid people + litigiousness = ridiculous warning labels

[rockland6674]

Many years ago, the label on one of my prescription medications advised me to "TAKE WHILE AWAKE." When I mentioned this to the pharmacist, he rolled his eyes and said he just copied the doctor's instructions.

First and only time I went to that particular doctor.

[Mint Crisps]

Very frequently, I have seen on take-away coffee cups in shops:

"Warning: Contents are hot."

[Nana M]

Or the Ginza knife warning............keep out of children!

[Eddylizard]

I always considered the label on a raft of products saying simply "Keep away from children" to be very good advice. Then I realised they were talking about the product itself.

[Mint Crisps]

Sometimes on products that have no small parts, I have seen the warning-somewhat paraphrased-

"Keep out of the reach of children. Product contains small parts."

we had one on a tube of rash cream (or whatever it's really called) and it said (don't know the exact words)

do not get on brain

how could you manage to get it on your brain? would you either:

a) jab a cotton bud thing with it on through your eardrum
b) stick the cotton bud with cream right up your nose into your brain
(i would have thought jabbing the cotton bud into your brain would do enough damage to start)
or
c) drill a hole through your skull and empty the tube through it into your brain

i can't see how you could do these accidentally...
(i think i cotton bud may be called a q-tip also?)