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RE: Risks and their avoidance



But while measures like Proposition 65 have little to do with effectively safeguarding human welfare (except in those cases where a legal monetary award is provided due to lack of signage), I am convinced they have everything to do with isolating corporations from product use/exposure liability.  We shouldn't be so naive so as to believe that "life as we know it" has been produced in a legal vacuum.  I rarely, if ever, interpret such signage as being a statement of human health risk, and apparently I'm in considerable company.
 
Rick Orthen
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of BLHamrick@AOL.COM
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 9:47 AM
To: lists@richardhess.com; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: Risks and their avoidance

In a message dated 5/19/2003 10:51:39 PM Pacific Standard Time, lists@richardhess.com writes:

How can we get society to take responsibility on a personal level? In
California we have a warning almost every where (I think it's Prop 65,
Barbara?) that says "this business uses stuff that is known to the state of
California as a carcinogen" or something equally scary. So, I mean this is
on my parking garage at the office. What do I do? Not park? Walk to work
and inhale the same stuff on the street? Puleeze!


Yes, it is Prop. 65, and this is one of the big problems we have, as a society, in addressing risks.  We had all these businesses put up these signs, but since they are literally EVERYWHERE, they mean nothing.  People don't even see them anymore, because you literally can't go anywhere that there's not one.  They're even on our hotels for cryin' out loud.

While I think we can reduce our risks of an untoward death, we first must all realize that one day, like it or not, we will with certainty become a "statistic."  Once we really grasp that, we can better balance quality of life issues against the fact that we know the quantity is surely limited.

Barbara