Landscaper/neighbor had a big chipper with a hundred warning labels on it and not even one indication as to it’s operation. Try reading all those labels and still getting anything done! He tells me the owner’s manual was even worse, two hundred pages but 80% of what’s in it was warnings, discalimers, legal disclosures etc, in two languages while the instructions themselves were only in English. Information overload causing immunity to noticing warning notices resulting in an eventual accident and some lawyer facing a moral dilema over suing other lawyers for litigating the product into uselessness.
In other words, do not inhale your C&O locos. Do not play the engines sounds at higher than reccommended volume. Do not modify the loco in any manner that may comprimise it’s inhierant and built in safety features. Do not use HO scale locomotives to pull anything other than compatible equiptment. Do not use under water. Use of locomotive as paperweight during tax preperation may be subject to IRS regulation. High speed operation may cause derailment which may cause fire or other injury. Locomotive warranty not valid beyond Earth gravitational field. Use of locomotive by mentally ill persons not reccommended. Couplers and optional decorations covered by seperate warranty. Use of C&O models on layouts depicting European railways or the American Southwest strictly prohibited. Manufacturer is not liable for accidents due to failure of train crews to use bell, horn, or whistle at grade crossings. This includes but is not limited to the running over of scale plastic people, cars, trucks, busses or animals. Warranty void if loco is stuck under coal tipple, water tank, signal towers, bridge or tunnel clearances or pedestrian walkways which are not at least 20 scale feet above the top of rails. Manufacturer is not responsible for anxiety attacks stemming from owner allowing third persons to
Just to keep you guys honest: Lead does NOT cause cancer. Check the Merck Index. Like most heavy metals, it is poisonous in its own right if you ingest it or inhale the vapors. And yes, you can expose yourself to lead vapor while soldering. That’s why they have done away with lead-tin solder and we have to use that lousy lead-free stuff. On the other hand, lead’s toxicity is fairly low compared to, say arsenic, nicotine, or potassium cyanide. You’d have to eat or inhale a fair amount. It is primarily a danger to young children. It can mess up their developing nervous systems at dosages that wouldn’t bother an adult. And the all-wise Government wants to make sure the kiddies don’t use Daddy’s solder for a teething stick.
So the cancer warning isn’t for the lead. It might be for lubricants, solvents, potting compounds, the monomer of the plastic in the body shell (some of those are real bad stuff), the printing ink on the decals, or who knows what. And you don’t have to eat the locomotive - lots of these things are carcinogenic when they get on your skin or or you smell their vapors. So you’d need an environmental suit to be sure you’re not exposed.
Those CA warning labels may be unnecessary, but they are right. But all of you are right too. Life is dangerous. How safe do you WANT to be?
You have a beter chance of going def becasue of the clikety clack the wheels makes,
But as said before since you don’t live in cal. you don’t have to worry the least bit, you could deep fry that thing then pour chocolate sauce over it, then eat it and youd be fine.
The warning label has the same weight as the warning label on a curling iron saying “do not stick in any orifice”.
As long as you are not an idiot you will be OK.
Chris
Lancaster, CA
P.S. If you ever come out to CA make sure you use the joke that you should have paid more attention to all those products you use with those warning labels that said that it could cause cancer in CA now that you are out here. The people that live out here never heard it before and will find it soooo funny.
Well, just a few words from a Native Californian–(yup, family came out here during the Gold Rush of 1849)–those Nanny Labels have been put on EVERYTHING by a State Government full of people who more than likely were not born here, but MOVED here from OTHER STATES! So don’t blame California, blame the Weirdos in your OWN states who moved out here.
My all-time favorite bumper sticker: “Welcome to California—NOW GO HOME!”
Since you can’t prevent morons from buying and using your product, your best defense against a moron with a slick lawyer he hired from a TV ad are warnings. Lots of them.
Most people know knives are sharp. For the 10% that don’t, we have a label. (That goes on the knife…)
I have had the same question asked of me here in Queensland, Australia, when I pointed out the fact that it was only a warning for California, the person was happy, thank god Aussies are immune to California Cancer.
Maybe we could send some Sunny Queensland Melanoma’s in exchange for some Kato’s.
Another law with good intentions that has been abused, it all started as I understand it when it came to the attention that some dishes had lead paint or worse in the glazes and decorations. I mean it was so bad that one manufacturers dishes would poison you if you used them regularly. Now most are safe but some still have labels but are only a hazard if chipped.
LOL!
Do you think they come in Metropolitan Transit Authority? Or are subways too obscure?
What is the length of the wheel base? We don’t want any rats dying on frogs because the wheelbase is too short! Do they come with sound? Can room be made for a sound decoder, or will we have to wire a dummy rat to it?
Maybe so - but when that cat in the black cape with the scythe comes calling, he’d better bring some help. I won’t be going peaceably!
What’s really funny is that I’ve done all these stupid things, used all these toxic products, worked at a very hazardous profession for a quarter of a century (one where getting shot at comes with the uniform) and even been within handshaking distance of multi-megaton warheads. I’m still here, and reasonably expect to outlive my father (who had all kinds of medical problems, most earlier by decades than my present age, and finally succumbed at Age 93.)
Will anybody bet that model railroading hasn’t been a factor in my longevity?
If everyone who is planning on visiting California this summer could please, PLEASE take an SUV back with you, then the rest of us out here could breathe again. Who knows? A clear head might just wake up our Nanny Government out here to exactly how IDIOTIC they’re being.
So, grab an SUV while you’re out here, okay? Look, you don’t even have to PAY for it, just lasso the darned thing and drag it away. I don’t care what you do with it after you get it across the border–find a landfill near Las Vegas or something, just get them OUT of here!
In 1986 California voters approved a ballot initiative that was called Prop 65. It was originally designed to protect our drinking water and keep chemicals known to cause cancer from the environment. The enacted law required warning labels on consumer packages if the product contained a chemical believed to cause cancer. The law also allowed private citizens to sue companies if it was felt that a manufacturer violated Proposition 65. And then came the lawyers and a voluminous number of lawsuits. It is my opinion that most manufacturers just put this Prop 65 Warning Label on everything, as a preventative measure against possible litigation.
I have lived in California my entire life and this warning label is so ubiquotious that it has become meaningless to me. I see it most everywhere and just totally ignore most of the warnings. As an example, these warning labels are all over gasoline pumps, but for what reason? So we’re not suppose to put gas in our cars or hold our breath when pumping gas?
It is sad and unfortunate because there are many chemicals available to the public that can and will cause cancer. But for the most part the cancer warnings are ignored and IMHO Prop 65 has been counter productive.
Actually it might depending upon the type of exposure (acute or chronic) and the type of lead exposure: there are water soluble (Inorganic Lead) and other types of lead (Organic). Quoting from the annual Report on Carcinogens (RoC): “Lead and Lead Compounds are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.”