| Corrosion control in a litigious
society: In the introduction to his very popular book
"Corrosion Engineering", Mars G. Fontana observed "we are indeed a
litigious society today". The need for awareness of legal liability in the corrosion
engineering domain was emphasized in this book, together with supporting statistics.
| More recent statistics (1996, 1998) published by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (US) continue to highlight this issue. According to these
figures the number of lawyers in the United States (622,000) exceeds the combined
total of materials engineers, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, civil
engineers, chemists and physicists.
Click on image to enlarge
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In the NACE International Corrosion 2001 Conference Plenary Lecture, Gene
F. Rak commented: "Perhaps we as corrosion engineers are partly to blame in that we
have not educated management on corrosion's effect on safety, assets, and the environment
- even as our society has become more litigious."
References/Literature:
M.G. Fontana: Corrosion Engineering, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986.
G.F. Rak: "The Corrosion Professional's Role in a Regulated and
Litigious Environment", Corrosion 2001 Plenary Lecture, Materials Performance,
May 2001, pp.18-21.
Links:
Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://stats.bls.gov/
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