Most of us would agree that the number of warning labels we experience every day has gotten a little out of hand. In California, it’s about to get even worse. A recent ruling in California’s labeling law, Proposition 65, will require certain exercise products to carry the same kind of warning label as industrial solvents. Talk about overkill!

Our chief science officer, Dr. Joseph Perrone, wrote an article this week arguing that over-warning hurts people’s ability to determine which warnings are minor enough to be safely ignored, and which should always be heeded.

From The Daily Press:

“Any chemical—even water—can be harmful in high enough doses. But just as no one thinks we should have a warning label on a gallon jug of H2O, so should we reserve warnings on consumer products to legitimate concerns.

Take the plasticizer that is used in exercise equipment, called DEHP, which is why dumbbells have warning labels. DEHP isn’t readily absorbed through human skin. You would have to swallow your plastic dumbbell whole in order for chemical exposure to be a problem. Warning against such a scenario as if it were a legitimate threat is ludicrous.”

Read Dr. Perrone’s entire article, titled, “How many dumbbells will it take to kill you?,” in the online edition of The Daily Press.