Recalls of unsafe products continue to escalate

Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a record 473 recalls as the marketplace was besieged by unsafe toys and other products.  This year isn’t looking any better.  In fact, for the first half of its 2008 fiscal year, the CPSC announced 307 recalls. At the current rate, we project that by year end the number of CPSC recalls could exceed 800.

The CPSC has held up the high number of recalls as a sign that they are doing their job.  To some extent that’s true; part of their job is to get unsafe products out of the marketplace.  Most retailers are quick to comply with a recall by removing unsafe products from their shelves and/or by blocking the sale of recalled products at their cash registers.

But the CPSC’s job is also to protect consumers from the unsafe products that have already made their way into our homes.  In that regard, CPSC recalls have been highly ineffective.  Mattel, which recalled more than 20 million toys last year, acknowledged that since the mid-1990’s the return rate for toys recalled by the company has been less than 10 percent, on average.  That means that more than 90 percent of the unsafe toys remain in our homes or have since been discarded.  In many cases, news of recalls never reaches consumers, and even when it does consumers may stop paying attention when recalls are announced at a rate of more than one a day.

We need stronger measures to protect consumers from unsafe products.  Manufacturers, distributors and retailers should be doing more to prevent unsafe products from reaching the market in the first place rather than relying on recalls to pull them back once they are already there.  Stronger laws can help.  Legislation recently passed in the House and Senate promises to help revitalize the CPSC, giving it more funding, more staff and more authority to protect the public from unsafe goods.  The legislation also places more responsibility on manufacturers to do the right thing.  Differences between the House and Senate bills need to be reconciled through conference as quickly as possible.  And Congress needs to combine the strongest consumer protection measures contained in each bill.

Much is at stake:  The CPSC has initiated 121 recalls in the first four months of 2008 involving nearly 10 million unsafe products. They include more than 5.9 million toys and other children’s products with harmful, tiny magnets; toxic lead paint; and choking and strangulation hazards. Consumers Union  has compiled a full report on recent recalls called: Still Not Safe: New Recalls Underline Need for Strong Hazardous Product Legislation.

Our children can’t protect themselves.  Congressional leaders need to move forward quickly and prepare the toughest bill possible for the President to sign that will take our children out of harm’s way of dangerous products.—Don Mays

Comments

[Rob Mouat]

I have a Char-Broil Grill Model Number 463268007. I turned off the grill after using it one evening. The next day I noticed the railing of my deck was charred. Apparently two gas control valves failed and continued to burn even after having been turned off. This was not an error, the knobs were in the upright and off position. The next day when the tank was empty and I noticed the charring, the valves spun freely but would not control the gas. It was full on. I complained to Charbroil and they replaced the two valves even though the unit is 2 months past the 12 month warranty period. The point of this is that the valves should not have failed at 14 months. When I dismantled the unit to replace the valves I saw that the burners were also rotted trough and had to be replaced. Charbroil replaced them under warranty. This unit is dangerous! Rob Mouat

[L Stafford]

What concerns me as much as health and safety is ecology. what happens to all of these recalled lead paint toys? Do they end in the trash/land fills? Do these items leach more lead into the ground and seep toxity in to the water ways for our future generations? If the toy companies would simply be more ethical and/or be better regulated there would be less toxicity and health hazzard to clean up as well as the immediate safety hazzard in the way of exposure to these toys and goods. It would seem that this issue is not just a parents' concern but all of us due to the resulting exposure to the environment from the disposal of these lead tainted items.

[Francis Green]

Yes tighter laws and inspection are needed, and clearly identifiable symbols on toys showing standards, but did you know that a minority of the toys that are recalled actually get sent back to the manufacturer? Perhaps the owners never hear of the recall? Or, worse, they disregard it...