Hazard Communication 101 for Technical Writers  

Hazard communication should help protect users of products, and by doing so, should help protect manufacturers from litigation. Writers of user documentation need to understand some basic product liability legal concepts, such as: duty to warn, open and obvious doctrine, hidden hazard, andforeseeable misuse. The communication aspect of hazard communication considers issues such as visibility, over-warning, and testing effectiveness. For guidance in writing warnings, there is a current standard which proscribes these elements: safety alert symbol, signal word, hazard, avoidance, and consequence. This paper ends with a list of resources for further study.

Manning, Michael D. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Communication>Risk Communication