"Coming Down With Cancer"

Reader comment on: Photo of the Day

Submitted by Rachel Moses (United States), Mar 28, 2013 17:41

While I agree that the California-mandated warnings can appear (and can actually be) absurd, the customer service rep with whom the Editor of FutureofCapitalism.com spoke who claimed that neither she nor her children had "come down with cancer" makes a seriously misleading point.

One of the more insidious facts about cancer is that it's not like a cold or measles. You don't just "come down" with it" within days or weeks of exposure. The results of actions taken in 1963, such as too much sun-bathing without sunblock and/or eye protection will not be evident for as many as five decades, when melanomas and cataracts (the latter of which are not cancers, but are helped along by unprotected expsosure to the sun) finally do emerge, the former with often fatal results.

Anyone telling a curious consumer on a customer hotline that "gee, we don't have cancer and we use the product all the time" is being grossly negligent and at worst, is exposing his or her employer to liability to a lawsuit for, essentially, contradicting the warning label.

I realize that the sometimes puckish Editor of FofC is writing in a puckish manner here, but there can be longterm harm that isn't diagnosable in the short term. Unfortunately for all of those who enjoy puckishness, that isn't a laughing matter.


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Other reader comments on this item

Title By Date
Disneyland too [47 words]TheMoomintrollApr 2, 2013 12:23
⇒ "Coming Down With Cancer" [219 words]Rachel MosesMar 28, 2013 17:41
I think everyone got it [79 words]Andrew TerhuneMar 29, 2013 09:08
Note that the people voted yes on prop 65 [98 words]LyleMar 30, 2013 19:45

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