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Warning: Silliness

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 6, 2007

DETROIT - Don't clean your kids in the washing machine. Don't dry your cell phone in the microwave. And be sure not to read the phone book while driving. Those are among the winning entries in this year's Wacky Warning Label Contest, run by an antilawsuit group.

Backers of the right to sue have a warning of their own - don't be so quick to poke fun at labels, which help save lives. They say the contest is part of an effort to pass laws that shield businesses from liability for those they hurt.

The Wacky Warning contest winners were chosen from about 150 nominations received by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, said the group's president, Robert B. Dorigo Jones. The group picked five finalists, and callers to a radio-station show chose the winners.

The top vote-getter was a warning tag from a Huebsch Originators front-load washing machine.

"DO NOT put any person in this washer," it read.

Bob Wilkinson, the owner of a coin-operated laundry in Northville Township, a Detroit suburb, won $500 for the submission.

A spokeswoman for the manufacturer said the washer warning label, a precaution after the filing of an unrelated lawsuit over a death of someone inside a running washing machine, is far from wacky.

"A front loader is just at the right height - speaking now as a mother and not a corporate spokeswoman - for a 4-year-old," said Patti Andresen-Shew, marketing director for Alliance Laundry Systems LLC in Ripon, Wisc.

The Center for Justice and Democracy, a group fighting legislation to limit the right to sue, said warning labels play a vital role in protecting the public.

No joke

Winning entries in the 10th annual Wacky Warning Label Contest, sponsored by the Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch:

First place: "DO NOT put any person in this washer," from a tag on a front-loading washing machine.

Second place: "Never use a lit match or open flame to check fuel level," from a label on a personal watercraft.

Third place (tie): "Do not iron," from a Super Lotto ticket; and "Don't try to dry your phone in a microwave oven," from a cell phone.

Honorable mention: "Please do not use this directory while operating a moving vehicle," from the cover of a phone directory

[Last modified January 6, 2007, 00:17:35]