Ethics in product safety and product liability

PRODUCT LIABILITY

• Definition:- In general, a manufacturer’s responsibility to market safe products. Under the law of torts, a manufacturer is held strictly liable when one of its products, placed on the market with the knowledge that it will be used without inspection for defects, proves to have a defect that causes injury to a human being.

• Product liability comprises a number of laws and court rulings that apply to any business that makes or sells a product. Businesses that make or sell products are responsible for ensuring that those products are safe and do not pose a hazard to the public. Such businesses can be held liable for any damage or harm their products might cause.

• According to Section 102(2) of the Uniform Product Liability Act, product liability includes "all claims or action brought for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by the manufacture, design, formula, preparation, assembly, installation, testing, warnings, instructions, marketing, packaging, or labeling of any product." Product liability issues have become increasingly important to manufacturers and marketing managers, due to the spread of the doctrine of strict liability and the adoption of new theories that permit recovery in so-called "delayed manifestation" cases.

Elements of Product Liability

• Four elements must be present for a product liability case to be considered under the negligent tort principles:

• The particular defendant owes a duty to the particular plaintiff to act as a reasonably prudent person under the same or similar circumstances.

• There is a breach of such a duty by the defendant—that is, a failure to act reasonably.

• There is an injury, including personal injury or property damage.

• There is a causal link between defendant's breach of duty and injuries sustained by the plaintiff.

PRODUCT SAFETY

• The safety and reliability of a consumer product is one of the key ethical issues engineers, inventors, and companies face when deciding if a product is ready to be released. Are there any applicable industry or safety standards that should be considered during the design process of your product? Has your product been tested thoroughly enough for its intended market