The case illustrates the importance of meeting professional responsibilities , and the consequences faced by professionals who fail to meet those responsibilities. This case is appropriate for structural design, statics and materials classes in addition to its usefulness as a general overview of consequences of professional actions. The case emphasizes an engineer's professional responsibility for public and worker safety and for the environment. It also stresses the obligation of a manager-engineer to oversee the actions of subordinates. Since 1940, anhydrous ammonia has been used by farmers in the spring and early fall as a nitrogen fertilizer.
Farmers typically rent the equipment necessary from the area farmer's cooperative.
The nationally-respected hose maker, XYZ Hose Company, supplied many of the hoses that were purchased by the cooperatives and used for the nitrogen fertilizer application. The consequences for several of the product's end users proved to be quite devastating. In one case, the hose burst leaving a Kansas farmer legally blind and incapable of earning a living. He was forced to give up farming, the only occupation and life he had ever known. Code from the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Codes Committee.