Citation

Barnett RL, Brickman DB. J. Saf. Res. 1986; 17(2): 49-55.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Outside of the judicial oath, the most popular litany heard in a product liability trial is "the safety hierarchy." It is associated with a number of misconceptions which are explored in this paper. First, there is no such thing as the safety hierarchy; there are many hierarchies. Secondly, "it" is not a scientific law but rather a useful rule of thumb whose genesis is consensus. Finally, its complete form is broader than that reported in any single reference.