Two Reasons for Providing Protective Equipment as Part of Hazardous Consumer Product Packaging

Abstract

In a few instances, appropriate personal protective devices are included in the packaging of hazardous consumer products (e.g. gloves in hair coloring kits). The inclusion of such devices serves to decrease the cost of complying to warnings specifying their use. It has been shown in several studies that decreasing cost can substantially increase compliance with warnings. A second, previously undocumented advantage of providing protective devices is that their mere presence can increase the perception of danger associated with using the product. In two field studies utilizing consumer cleaning products it was found that the inclusion of protective devices significantly increased the perceived danger of using the products. The inclusion of protective equipment also (for reasons of reduced cost and increased perceived danger) resulted in highly significant and substantial increases in warning compliance. These results indicate that providing personal protective devices as part of product packaging can be a powerful method for substantially increasing warning compliance in at least some circumstances.