Rules for giving soap away

[Ant]

Hey soap makers, so I have been going nuts with soap making and now have accumulated a boat load of soap. I have started giving them away to friends and family. You know, here's some free soap, tell me about what you think of it so I can tweak the recipe sort of thing. I write the ingredients down on a card and that's that.

Anyways, I had a bit of a scare from a coworker that has me questioning giving them away or at least to some people. I brought in a few soaps for my coworker, which he loved. I was kidding with him about how smelly the pine tar soap was.. Then another fellow coworker comes and starts huffing on the soap. Before she did that I told her it had pine tar in it. Turns out she's allergic to pine products. Immediately gets all congested and throat starts getting dry and closing some. She didn't need hospital thank god but she ended up calling out sick the next day. Sounded miserable. Luckily I didn't get in trouble at work but I could see the future work emails from HR of no more giving soap away to coworkers...

Scared me a bit since it was my soap that caused the reaction, even though I told her what was in it BEFORE she started huffing it in.

What do you guys think of this? Do you have any rules for who you give them to and how you do it (i.e. list of ingredients, etc)? Could I be liable if someone was to get hurt from the free soap I gave away?

 

[amd]

I think this is on your coworker. You did warn her before.

As a seller, even at shows I have people who come and know they have allergies - common ones are coconut and olive oil - and they always take care to ask. I can't stop every person and demand they tell me what their allergies are.

If you are personally handing the soaps out, then it is on the person to ask. If you are leaving them in a box in a breakroom, I would make sure every soap is labeled or there is some kind of signage.

 

[artemis]

From what I have observed about non-soaping friends:

They don't even know what kind of things might be in soap to begin with. Silk in soap? Coconut oil? Spirulina? What? I label all the soaps I give away, so they have a chance to see everything that's in the soap.

One friend has a bad allergy to silk. Until I told her, it never occurred to her that there might silk in handmade soap.

My point being that people don't necessarily know to even ask if their allergen is in there.

 

[Obsidian]

I give away soap at the doctors office and never label them but I'd think the employees there would know to avoid them if they have allergies. I only give unscented, uncolored basic soap.

It's probably safer to either label the soap individualy or only bring in one kind/scent with a small printed list of ingredients.

If you work in a small enough place, you could always ask everyone about allergies, that way you know what to avoid.

 

[Ant]

Thanks for the replies. I generally have ingredients listed luckily. The girl just gave me a heart attack lol

For the future... I don't know in these sort of cases, since there was no purchase, if I could get in trouble if someone reacted to soap I've given them then they died from an allergic reaction or say they go to the hospital then now demand I pay for that bill. How would that work?

 

[AliOop]

Thanks for the replies. I generally have ingredients listed luckily. The girl just gave me a heart attack lol

For the future... I don't know in these sort of cases, since there was no purchase, if I could get in trouble if someone reacted to soap I've given them then they died from an allergic reaction or say they go to the hospital then now demand I pay for that bill. How would that work?

Lawyer here - admitted in four states, but FL isn’t one of them. Without giving specific legal advice, I can say that most states do have general negligence laws that allow for lawsuits if your behavior towards someone else caused harm, despite the lack of intention to do so, or despite any lack of recklessness. Of course, if recklessness is present, that ups the likelihood of being on the losing end.

In the absence of any specific law relating to the activity in question (and often such laws do exist), the jury generally decides what is negligent or reckless on a case-by-case basis.

How juries rule is often a function of the local culture towards the activity in question, and towards lawsuits in general. In California, juries can and often do find fault for almost any normal behavior that caused any harm, no matter how unexpected the harm might have been. Other states have more conservative (sensible?) folks who believe that life happens and that compensation isn’t owed for every harm that may be suffered.

Summary: if you are concerned about liability, purchase insurance that covers donated soap. Otherwise, you are operating in faith and hope that people will do what you believe is the right thing. Reasonable minds can differ about what is the right thing... and unreasonable ones definitely will.

 

[fumanchu]

I'd make a point of handing out soap all round her and smiling sweetly while refusing to give her any more because it didn't agree with her.

 

[AliOop]

I'd make a point of handing out soap all round her and smiling sweetly while refusing to give her any more because it didn't agree with her.

As satisfying as that might feel, studies show that pointing out the person’s error greatly increases the likelihood of being sued. Conversely, sympathy works best to avoid lawsuits. EX: Doctors who admit and apologize for medical mistakes are much less likely to be sued.

I don’t think @Ant has any mistake to admit here, but sympathy for the negative experience is still possible.

 

[Debby]

Hey soap makers, so I have been going nuts with soap making and now have accumulated a boat load of soap. I have started giving them away to friends and family. You know, here's some free soap, tell me about what you think of it so I can tweak the recipe sort of thing. I write the ingredients down on a card and that's that.

Anyways, I had a bit of a scare from a coworker that has me questioning giving them away or at least to some people. I brought in a few soaps for my coworker, which he loved. I was kidding with him about how smelly the pine tar soap was.. Then another fellow coworker comes and starts huffing on the soap. Before she did that I told her it had pine tar in it. Turns out she's allergic to pine products. Immediately gets all congested and throat starts getting dry and closing some. She didn't need hospital thank god but she ended up calling out sick the next day. Sounded miserable. Luckily I didn't get in trouble at work but I could see the future work emails from HR of no more giving soap away to coworkers...

Scared me a bit since it was my soap that caused the reaction, even though I told her what was in it BEFORE she started huffing it in.

What do you guys think of this? Do you have any rules for who you give them to and how you do it (i.e. list of ingredients, etc)? Could I be liable if someone was to get hurt from the free soap I gave away?

Definitely not your fault, it was a gift and not even intended for the other person, but I can understand how you feel
When I give away my soaps I label it and give it wrapped in tissue. This is one of my first soaps. So they don’t have to open it if they don’t want to

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Interesting question! Thanks for asking it!

I've been participating in forums & groups like this since 2004 and this is the first time I've heard anything like this happening. My thought is, if you sold pine tar soap to her instead of giving it away, then she would be responsible for making that choice. The fact that you brought the soap in for another person, still puts the responsibility of sniffing it firmly on her shoulders.

What I'd like to know is, if she is allergic to pine, and she knows it smells like pine, what was she thinking?!

Dumb move on her part. You don't owe her an apology any more than if she was allergic to peanuts and you brought in a batch of peanut butter cookies to share. People who are allergic to whatever are responsible for monitoring their own safety in this situation. JMHO.

 

[Ant]

Lawyer here - admitted in four states, but FL isn’t one of them. Without giving specific legal advice, I can say that most states do have general negligence laws that allow for lawsuits if your behavior towards someone else caused harm, despite the lack of intention to do so, or despite any lack of recklessness. Of course, if recklessness is present, that ups the likelihood of being on the losing end.

In the absence of any specific law relating to the activity in question (and often such laws do exist), the jury generally decides what is negligent or reckless on a case-by-case basis.

How juries rule is often a function of the local culture towards the activity in question, and towards lawsuits in general. In CA, juries can and often do find fault for almost any normal behavior that caused any harm, no matter how unexpected the harm might have been. Other states have more conservative (sensible?) folks who believe that life happens and that compensation isn’t owed for every harm that may be suffered.

Summary: if you are concerned about liability, purchase insurance that covers even donated soap. Otherwise, you are operating in faith and hope that people will do what you believe is the right thing. Reasonable minds can differ about what is the right thing... and unreasonable ones definitely will.

Thank you for your non legal advice The whole experience is a bit baffling to me. I think the situation would have been avoided with some common sense on both parts.

I'm now moved to West Virginia and will need to look into any laws concerning making soap products. I don't sell soap but will probably need to eventually, nothing big though.

It feels like liability insurance for gifting soaps is a little extreme but these are extreme times for most people right now. Will have to look into how much it costs and where I can get some from. Call me paranoid but it truly spooked me. Would hate to get into trouble over trying to do nice things.

I'd make a point of handing out soap all round her and smiling sweetly while refusing to give her any more because it didn't agree with her.

I'm with aliloop on this one, better to be nice verses not when it comes to avoiding trouble

Inside I was pretty peeved about the whole situation. She goes sniffing soap I didn't give to her after I told her what was in it while she knew she was allergic. Her position is pretty physical to a point and initially I wondered if she did that to get out of work, so putting more workload on me. But who knows, she may really have felt bad or could have milking it, isn’t my place to say.

I was sympathetic about it, tracked down allergy stuff for her and took it easy on her for the rest of the day. Also, we have been using pinesol to disinfect common places at work so talked to management about getting a new chemical to use because she had also been reacting from that and didn't tell anyone. Championed for her. Beyond that didn't know what else to do.

 

[AliOop]

Inside I was pretty peeved about the whole situation. She goes sniffing soap I didn't give to her after I told her what was in it while she knew she was allergic. Her position is pretty physical to a point and initially I wondered if she did that to get out of work, so putting more workload on me. But who knows, she may really have felt bad or could have milking it, isn’t my place to say.

I was sympathetic about it, tracked down allergy stuff for her and took it easy on her for the rest of the day. Also, we have been using pinesol to disinfect common places at work so talked to management about getting a new chemical to use because she had also been reacting from that and didn't tell anyone. Championed for her. Beyond that didn't know what else to do.

I think you handled it really well, all things considered. As someone with non-life-threatening allergies myself, there are times that I do something stupid, like not asking if there is milk in something before eating it. And then I feel like a total dork for not being more careful.

But hey, that's why they call them accidents... because we weren't paying attention, right? This situation may or may not have been an accident on her part. Either way, I wouldn't give her any more rent-free space in your head at this point.

 

[Ant]

What I'd like to know is, if she is allergic to pine, and she knows it smells like pine, what was she thinking?!

Dumb move on her part. You don't owe her an apology any more than if she was allergic to peanuts and you brought in a batch of peanut butter cookies to share. People who are allergic to whatever are responsible for monitoring their own safety in this situation. JMHO.

You would think. My nephew is allergic to mango and he asks everyone when people make things or looks at ingredient lists if it has mango in it. He's 10.

I felt pretty bad about it and apologized. She did it in front of alot of my coworkers and was making a big scene of it. Gut feeling was she was exaggerating it for attention, she's very young and immature but can't say for sure. I was really embarrassed about it.

 

[AliOop]

Your gut is probably right on this one. At least you have a lot of witnesses.

 

[Ant]

I think you handled it really well, all things considered. As someone with non-life-threatening allergies myself, there are times that I do something stupid, like not asking if there is milk in something before eating it. And then I feel like a total dork for not being more careful.

But hey, that's why they call them accidents... because we weren't paying attention, right? This situation may or may not have been an accident on her part. Either way, I wouldn't give her any more rent-free space in your head at this point.

Maybe I've been too hard on her in my head. I suppose with it being a non life threatening allergy like your milk she probably would forget about it sometimes. If it was deadly I pray she would protect herself like my mango allergic nephew for her own sake.

 

[AliOop]

Maybe I've been too hard on her in my head. I suppose with it being a non life threatening allergy like your milk she probably would forget about it sometimes. If it was deadly I pray she would protect herself like my mango allergic nephew for her own sake.

Nah, I don't think you are being too hard on her - I think you are being too hard on YOU. You really didn't do anything wrong.

 

[Kateri]

Really sounds like your soap sniffing coworker was trying to get some attention or time off work. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you; it’s not like you went waving it under her nose.

 

[Adeliepenguin]

I don't have an allergies so I buy what I want and eat what I want. My husband has an allergy to sesame so when we eat he checks for it so I guess if you know you have an allergy you’re more inclined to check for it so if she knew she was allergic and even after you telling her, why on earth did she even touch it!? I guess it just comes with the “job” of selling cosmetics and it’s all a learning curve and how to deal with situations like these. I label everything I sell or gift and I have insurance..that’s all we can do as cosmetics manufacturers I guess but you did go one step further by informing her about the pine too