Tuesday, March 21

Warning Labels

I was looking at the back of a GLADE air freshener container today (I tend to read anything and everything within my reach) and found near the bottom of their product endorsements the warning label. Now for some reason I look at warning labels on everything, maybe it was my short career as a pharmacy tech, but what I read was not what I expected. What I expected was the typical, “keep out of reach of children, and do not set near anything that could cause this container to explode, and do not ingest or get in your eyes. This typical warning was there, but then below, there was the addition of this: Keep away from teens. Help prevent product misuse. My first response was shock, I have never read a label like this before, and of all the things that teens and adults misuse, air freshener is not on the to of the list. Seconds after thinking this I though “hey, at least they are putting it out there” they might have well said WARNING THIS PRODUCT CAN BE USED AS A MIND ALTERING SUBSTANCE AND THAT IS NOT THE CORRECT USE. DRUGS ARE BAD, EVEN WHEN IN THE FORM OF AIRFRESHNER. Then I got to thinking about what other things there should be misuse labels on such as Sudafed, since it is used to make Meth, Ritalin which can be crushed and snorted, and glue, which to my understanding can have similar effects as the air freshener. But I think that there are other objects that the consumers of this beautiful brilliant country misuse. Here are a few I thought of:

Lunch trays – they make great sleds
Seat belts and bowling shoes – have in the past made great fashion statements
Paperclips- clean under fingernails rather well
Post it notes- great book marks
Plastic forks- make great garden stakes

What are some things you can think of that if this trend catches on, may be printing “keep away from teens and adults. Fight against product misuse” ?

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