Product registration cards can save lives
Most of you have probably never heard of Danny Keysar. Unfortunately, many safety advocates have. Danny was a 16-month-old boy who died in 1998 when a portable crib in his childcare center collapsed around his neck. Although the crib had been recalled five years earlier, word of its danger had not reached Danny's parents, his caregivers, or the state inspector who visited the licensed childcare facility just eight days before Danny's death.
What happened to Danny Keysar could have been prevented if there had been a better way for the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the manufacturer to get the word out about the recall. Currently, they rely primarily on media reports of press releases. Only the largest recalls get mass media attention, and most product recalls don’t get noticed by busy parents. As a result, the effectiveness of most recalls is dismally poor, leaving too many unsafe products still in use.
Hence, the The Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act (HR 1699), a bill that's now pending in the House of Representatives. It would require durable juvenile products such as cribs to come with product registration cards to make it easier for manufacturers to contact owners of the product in the event of a recall.
Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires product registration cards for all child safety seats, the CPSC has no similar requirements for the products under their jurisdiction. Some juvenile product manufacturers voluntarily provide product registration cards for strollers, high chairs, and the like, but they often ask for personal information, which, even though providing it is optional, can be a deterrent to consumers.
The CPSC once considered requiring registration cards for certain products, but rejected the idea because the cards are generally ignored by the public. It’s true that most consumers don’t return the cards, but effective consumer education campaigns and easy-to-complete cards can boost the return rate. By providing postage-paid registration cards with lawn mowers sold through dealers, Toro Corp., for example, hit 75 to 80 percent return rates. That compares to 35 to 40 percent for mowers sold through mass retail outlets. The return rate for the non-postage paid card is 10 to 20 percent.
Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, testified in support of HR 1699 — one of four child-safety bills discussed in a hearing by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection — earlier this month.
Although product registration cards are not the perfect solution for enhancing recall effectiveness, they can help. We hope lawmakers will support this bill. Until they do, we suggest that you complete any warranty or product registration cards on any products you buy to increase your chances of learning about recalls. It’s not necessary to provide personal information other than your name and address. To stay on top of some current recalls, you can also go to recalls.gov and sign up for the email alerts offered by the CPSC, FDA and USDA.
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Posted by: Rex M | Jun 27, 2007 7:38:13 PM
My wife and I are hesitant to return the cards, simply because being a young parent means getting highlighted in every database as a "potential consumer" and being inundated with product offers. I would think that the "fear" of a mailbox full of demographically targetted catalogs might be one reason people aren't very good about returning registration cards. That said, we pay attention to product recalls, etc.