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Subject:Risk Communication From:"Daniel E. Wise" <dewise -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 16 Jun 1996 22:44:03 -0700
Colleagues,
Ammonia, as in the example being discussed in this thread, can indeed
cause serious physical damage and even death. At one of my previous
employers, OSHA required the company to install an exhaust stack from
the first-floor blue line machine that extended beyond the top of the 8
storey building so that the exhaust plume would dissipate at harmless
dilutions.
As for publishing warnings, MIL STDs have quite specific rules for
notes, cautions, and warnings in military manuals.
As for publishing cautions and warnings in commercial manuals, most
companies will try just about anything, as indicated by some of the
comments already made, to avoid them.
This has been the subject of at least one of the ethics cases published
in recent years in the STC newsletter Intercom. If we as TCs know or
strongly suspect that a caution or warning should be published in our
documents, what is our moral and/or legal obligation to make sure it
is? Should we risk our jobs to fight for what we believe is needed?
You get the point. How many of us are willing to be whistleblowers?
Dan Wise
dewise -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
The opinions are mine alone. No one else would have them.
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