I am guilty of not reading the label

Nothing makes me more upset about myself than to buy a product, try to use it, then find out it doesn’t work as I expected, because the last thing I did was read the label.

I am guilty of not reading the label on almost everything that has a label. Which is almost everything.

October is Home Safety Month. That isn’t likely to make me be more careful around the home, and I’m rather certain we won’t celebrate or have a bonfire or light candles or put labels under the pillow at night.

The middle two weeks of October have been designated as Read The Label First, a campaign to encourage all of us who buy and use products with labels to actually read the label before buying or using the products.

Why? It’s the law! Or, not.

Iwalani Sato says “it’s the law” but doesn’t quote chapter or verse so I’m inclined to think that there’s no real law that requires that product labels be read before use. If there is, I wonder what the penalty is, and who is enforcing the law.

Does Hawaii have a secret label police? How do they know what I read or don’t read? Think about that knock on the door the next time you prepare dinner but don’t read the labels first.

No one can really argue against the benefits of reading labels on any product, hazardous or healthy. The benefits should be obvious. Instead of a costly and ineffective bureaucratic initiative to raise awareness, how about producing a series of television commercials which highlight the dangers of not reading labels?

Show what happens to the children of a mother who accidentally mixes boric acid in her Kool-Aid. Boric acid is known to be toxic to the testicles. That alone is sufficient reason to read labels.