Toxic Shock Syndrome from Tampons
Toxic Shock Syndrome from Tampons
Krystal H. Rinehart v. International Playtex
This case focused entirely on the warning label on the package insert of a tampons product used by a young woman who subsequently suffered from toxic shock syndrome (TSS). One side of the tightly folded insert contained instructions about how to use the product. The other side was labeled “Important Information About Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS).” The “Important Information” side was compared with the Federal Drug Administration's guidelines for wording on tampon packages and inserts, focusing on the speech acts of warning and on the discourse requirements of prominence and legibility. Linguistic analysis was made concerning the semantics of “association,” “attention,” “alert,” and “warning”; the discourse analysis of topic; topic sequencing; the application of Grice's maxims of quantity, relation, and manner; and the importance of directness rather than indirectness in communications of this type, including an analysis of the lack of prominence and effective document design.
Keywords: warning label, speech acts, warning, linguistic analysis, prominence, legibility, semantics, topic sequencing, Grice's maxims, indirectness, document design
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