This week in safety: Talking turkey about food safety

The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to make sure everyone has a food-safe Thanksgiving and is offering guidelines for thawing, cooking and storing the turkey.

Thawing

• In the refrigerator: Leave the turkey in its original wrapper and place it on a tray to catch any juices that may leak from the package. Bacteria in poultry juices can cross-contaminate other foods. Allow 24 hours per 4 to 5 pounds of turkey. For example, a 16-pound turkey would take 3 to 4 days to thaw. A thawed turkey can remain in the refrigerator for 1-2 days before cooking.
• In water: If you don't have the time or space to thaw the turkey in the refrigerator, don't panic. You can submerge the bird in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes. Allow about 30 minutes defrosting time per pound of turkey. Cook immediately after thawing.
• In the microwave: Check the manufacturer's instructions for the size turkey that will fit into your oven, the minutes per pound, and the power level to use for thawing. Cook immediately after thawing.

Cooking

• Don't even think of pulling an all-nighter with your turkey. It's not safe to cook a turkey all night at 200 °F. The minimum oven temperature is 325 °F to ensure any bacteria are destroyed.
• If you plan to stuff your turkey, mix the wet and dry stuffing ingredients just before placing the stuffing inside the turkey cavity or into a casserole dish. The stuffing should be moist, not dry, since heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a moist environment. Stuff your turkey loosely and place it in the oven immediately.
• Use a food thermometer. A cooked whole turkey is safe at a minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the bird and stuffing. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh, wing, the thickest part of the breast and the stuffing. When the turkey is removed from the oven, let it stand 20 minutes before removing the stuffing and carving the turkey.

Leftovers

• After dinner, but within two hours of cooking, cut the leftover turkey into small pieces. Refrigerate the stuffing and turkey separately in shallow containers. Use leftover turkey and stuffing within 3-4 days or freeze these foods. Reheat thoroughly to a temperature of 165 °F or until hot and steaming.

More safety headlines
Instant recall: Are do-it-yourself quick fixes safe?
CBC News
In this era of mass recalls, more and more companies are taking the quick-fix approach to dealing with faulty, malfunctioning or unsafe products: they're sending a repair kit. Read more ...

515 chemicals a day on a woman’s face
The Sun
Beauty-conscious girls use up to 13 products, most containing more than 20 ingredients, a new study found. Some of the additives have been linked to cancer, hormone problems, skin conditions and allergies. Perfume is the worst offender. Read more ... 

Six facts you can’t ignore when babyproofing your home
Reader's Digest
This editor recently invited Allison Rhodes aka “The Safety Mom” to her friend’s home to do a mom-safety evaluation.  She reported on her findings on the “Today” show and wants to share them with parents everywhere. Read more ...

Dangerous counterfeit electronics a growing problem
KOMO News.com
It's a hidden hazard that could set your house on fire or electrocute you. Counterfeit electronics are downright dangerous. "These things can kill you," says the president of the Electrical Safety Foundation. "A purse or a CD isn't going to hurt you. But a counterfeit electrical product will hurt you. It's pretty scary." Read more ...

Senate panel OKs giving FDA more power to police food safety
The Wall Street Journal
A key Senate committee approved sweeping legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration more power to police food safety and reorient its efforts toward preventing food contamination instead of reacting to outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. Read more ...

Listeria found in Eggo Waffles prior to shortage
ConsumerAffairs.com
It appears there's more to the story behind the nationwide shortage of Eggo waffles. Kellogg's has blamed the shortage of its popular breakfast foods on flooding and equipment changes and repairs at the company's bakery in Atlanta, Georgia. But the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) in September found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Eggo Buttermilk Waffles made at the plant. Read more ...

Agriculture chief promises better food alerts to schools
USA Today
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pledged Tuesday that the government will do a better job alerting schools across the nation when it suspects that food for school lunches might be contaminated. "We understand and appreciate that there has been a … gap in communication, which results in school districts not getting information on a timely basis," Vilsack told lawmakers during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. Read more ...

Senate bill would require E. coli testing
The New York Times
Citing public concern that meat companies and federal regulators are not doing enough to make ground beef safe, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, has introduced legislation that would require companies to test for a deadly E. coli strain. Read more ...

Don't miss these recalls

• 17,000 Century 21 children’s hooded sweatshirts and jackets (strangulation hazard)
• 641,000 “Bobby Chupete” pacifiers (choking hazard)
• 10,000 Salomon USA alpine ski bindings (fall hazard)
• 600 Three Sisters Yayita baby hammocks (fall and strangulation hazard)
• 300 Cost Plus stainless steel cookware (burn hazard)

P&G recalls tainted Vicks Sinex nasal spray

Procter & Gamble is recalling three lots—120,000 bottles—of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in the U.S., Germany and the United Kingdom. P&G said it is taking this step after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of the spray made at its plant in Gross Gerau, Germany.  There have been no reports of illness.

Readers may remember that Tylenol recalled 21 types of infants' and children's liquid Tylenol in September because it may have been contaminated with the same bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "people who have certain health problems like weakened immune systems or chronic lung diseases, particularly cystic fibrosis, may be more susceptible to infections with B. cepacia."

P&G is removing the Vicks Sinex from store shelves and has informed regulatory authorities in the affected countries.  The company said it found the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product from U.S. lot 9239028831 and is conducting testing from lots sold in the U.K. (9224028832) and Germany (9224028833) that were produced from the same batch of raw material mixture. The lot number is listed on both the outer carton and the bottle. (Fun fact: In Germany the mist is called Wick Sinex Schnupfenspray Dosiersystem.)

Consumers should discard any affected spray and can call P&G for a replacement coupon or refund. The contact number in the U.S. is  877-876-7881.

Grilling our readers results in a recall

You gotta hand it to a guy who would drive all the way from Columbus, Indiana to Yonkers, New York to deliver a used grill to our testing labs. That's what John Heathcote did after we contacted him to learn more about a Perfect Flame grill that was giving him trouble. Because we only test new products, our normal testing protocols hadn't picked up on problems that John and other Perfect Flame owners were having after using their grills for awhile. Problems like lids catching fire and burners becoming dangerously deteriorated. (That's John, in shorts, at right showing his grill to Don Mays.)

John's grill was one of two donated for our tests but he gets the award for coming the farthest. (He also got a replacement grill and gas money.) What we got was more information to argue for the grill to be recalled. And yesterday it was—665,000 Perfect Flame SLG series grills in fact.

Not only do we listen to our readers but we act on your complaints. When we're told about safety hazards, we enter the information into a database that we monitor to uncover and address emerging problems. 
 
Readers started telling us about issues with Perfect Flame grills in 2007. We analyzed their complaints and wrote about them on this blog in August 2008. We questioned whether an earlier Perfect Flame grill recall  went far enough since it hadn’t include other hazardous models that our readers complained about—specifically the SLG2006, SLG2007 and SLG2008 series grills. 

We also reported our concerns to the compliance office of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and followed up with a written request for an investigation and recall. We sent the CPSC a list of 136 complaints we'd received, most citing uncontrolled fires, melting and poor burner quality for their SLG model grills. One user had been burned while trying to extinguish a fire and two homes had suffered property damage. Clearly, the CPSC should have addressed this hazardous product immediately.
 
But it didn't and we kept getting complaints at the rate of more than two per week.  By the beginning of this August, we'd received 77 complaints of fires, resulting in 11 injuries including burns to the hands, arms and legs. The injuries included two reports of breathing complications from inhalation of noxious gasses, and some 60 problems with burners cracking and rusting and/or shooting out irregular flames.

After reading so many complaints we wanted to test the older grills ourselves. That's where John came in. We put his grill and one from another volunteer through tests cooking fatty hamburgers and juicy steaks.  Although there were unusual flame patterns and out-of-control flare ups, we didn’t see any molten metal or lid fires. (It’s perplexing, though common, to get different results in a lab from those that turn up in the real world.)
 
When John got home he wrote to us again. “I truly hope that acquiring my grill will help in your research. I too believe there is something wrong with the Perfect Flame grills, either with the materials, the design or a combination of both," he said. "You have no idea how much I appreciate getting a replacement grill and how good it makes me feel knowing that I may help resolve an issue with a dangerous product.”

Finally, a full 14 months after we first brought Perfect Flame's imperfect flames to the CPSC's attention, the grill was recalled yesterday. “CPSC commends Consumers Union and Consumer Reports for the in-depth laboratory testing and research done in regard to this product," the agency's spokesman Scott Wolfson told us.  "Now that the recall is out, it's time for consumers with these dangerous grills to respond immediately to the recall to avoid any more fires or injuries.”
 
So it pays to report your safety concerns to us. That way we can warn readers, tweak our testing programs and push government agencies, manufacturers and retailers to get unsafe products off the market and out of consumers’ homes. To report a problem, fill out a form on our Web site. You can also report unsafe products to the CPSC.

Hats off to John Heathcote and to the rest of you who wrote.—Don Mays

Population declines on the Island of Misfit Toys

We won’t soon forget the millions upon millions of defective toys recalled in 2008 and 2007 due to lead hazards that can cause developmental problems, small magnets that can block or perforate intestines, and toxic chemicals that can put kids in comas. Consumers, as well as Consumers Union, lost confidence in the safety of toys in the marketplace. But a few items in the news recently gives us hope that things are turning around in Toyland.

At a town-hall style meeting in New York City's Times Square,  Inez Tenenbaum, Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, hailed the significant reduction in toy recalls this year. So far there have been 38 toy recalls, down from 162 in 2008 and 148 in 2007. Tenenbaum attributed the decline to increased enforcement at the ports, cooperation with other countries, consumer awareness and education, and compliance by the toy industry with new federal safety rules.

The new rules have tightened restrictions on lead, made formerly voluntary toy-safety standards mandatory, and required that toys for children under 12 be tested and certified before they're sold. “CPSC has worked hard this year to give parents and grandparents greater confidence that the toys they seek to purchase have enhanced safety protections for children,” said Tenenbaum. We agree.

Another factor that could boost consumer confidence is the Toy Industry Association’s Toy Safety Certification Program. Launched last month, the program adds an extra level of scrutiny to make sure toys are manufactured to comply with safety standards. Qualifying toys will eventually bear a safety certification mark. Although we don’t think the program requires enough randomized sampling of the final product, it’s a start. This week the association announced the first products that have been certified under the program including a Radio Flyer push toy.    
 
The third piece of toy news this week wasn't so cheery. The CPSC's annual report on toy-related deaths and injuries showed that toy-associated injuries are on the rise while fatalities have dropped over the past few years. There were 172,700 toy-related injuries that sent children under 15 to the nation's emergency rooms in 2008. That’s the highest injury level since 2001. But the number of fatalities for children under 15 has declined to 19 from 28 in 2006 and 22 in 2007, according to information the CPSC has collected so far.

With the busiest toy-buying season upon us, it's good to know that care is being taken to ensure that what's on the shelves is safe.—Don Mays

Fires and burns prompt recall of 665,000 Perfect Flame grills sold at Lowe's

After reports of fires and some injuries, Perfect Flame has recalled its SLG series of grills -- totaling 665,000 grills sold at Lowe’s retail outlets nationwide over the past four years. Perfect Flame has received about 40 reports of fires from the burners deteriorating and about 23 reports of the lids catching fire. The company is aware of one report of an eye injury requiring surgery and 21 incidents of minor burns to the hands, arms or face.

After writing about these grills in August 2008, we have been hearing from readers about their problems with Perfect Flame grills and have taken our concerns to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Today we'd like to get the word out on the recall but we'll be weighing in with more information in the coming days.

This recall includes 10 model numbers with the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the model number. (See the recall notice for the full list.) According to the notice, the burners can deteriorate causing irregular flames and the lids of some models can catch fire, posing fire and burn hazards to the consumer.

The CPSC is advising owners to stop using the grills. Perfect Flame is offering owners replacement lids and/or burners, depending on the model. Grill owners should contact the company at (888) 840-9590  or visit www.lowes.com for more information.

Based on the comments from our readers who have had a variety of good and bad experiences trying to get their damaged grills replaced, we'll be interested to see how the company handles this recall.

Animal-shaped outlet covers are a real dog

A concerned grandfather wrote to us recently to say that the family of his "toddler granddaughter" had been given some animal-shaped outlet covers that he suspected were more of a hazard than an effective childproofing device. The multi-colored plastic plugs "certainly would seem to be attractive to a toddler," he wrote. He also expressed concern about the package labeling that warned "Choking hazard, small parts."

Indeed, to the average adult, electric outlets seem mundane, but those mysterious slots in the wall are fascinating and dangerous to babies and small children. Our analysis of data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission indicates that there have been an estimated 8,000 electrical injuries to young children from 2000 to 2007 related to electrical outlets.  Many incidents involved small children sticking bobby pins, keys, fingers and toys into outlets. Fortunately, most of the consequences were minor electrical burns to the hands and fingers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to use plug protectors for all wall outlets. So any product that covers those outlets would seem like a good idea, right? Not always.

Colors and shapes that attract little ones can have exactly the wrong result. Instead of keeping kids away from outlets, the bright, appealing figures of the DCI Product/Decor Craft Inc. animal safety covers described by our reader may tempt children to tug them out, creating both a shock hazard and a choking hazard.

We found the safety covers very easy to remove from some electrical outlets.  Even if your child couldn’t manage to pull the cover out herself, an adult could inadvertently forget to reinstall the outlet protector after, say, charging a cell phone. The cute shape and brilliant color could beckon a curious toddler.

In the past, we have rated other outlet protectors that were small enough to be choking hazards as Not Acceptable. These animal-shaped plugs may pose more of a hazard because they look like toys.

Our take:  We think the DCI Products Animal Plug Safety Covers present a risk to children and shouldn’t be sold. There are better ways to protect your children. For example, we've seen a spring-loaded outlet cover that is easy enough to use by adults but hard for children to negotiate.  -- Sue Booth

Jon minus Kate tempts fate

You’d think that a guy who thrives on attention would seek a bit less of it when he’s doing something unsafe. Especially when it also endangers his children. But no. Jon Gosselin, star of TV’s former reality show "Jon and Kate Plus Eight," didn’t seem the least bit concerned about putting one of his five-year-olds on an ATV. The fact that 20 percent of those killed by ATVs and 30 percent of those injured are kids must have escaped him.
 
Gosselin risked having his son become one of the 40,000 kids who are sent to emergency rooms each year in accidents related to ATVs. Plus, neither the elder nor the younger Gosselin was wearing essential safety gear—a helmet.
 
Children under 16 should not be riding on adult ATVs. Anyone who rides an ATV should don a helmet. And guess what single-rider ATVs were designed for. Yes, a single rider. That means one. 
 

To read more about the safest way to use ATVs, see the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s dedicated Web site.

Photo: INFPhoto.com

This week in safety: Buggy recall hits bumps abroad

After recalling one million umbrella strollers in the U.S. earlier this week, Maclaren took a lot of heat for the way it handled the recall overseas where it also sells strollers—or pushchairs as they're called in England.

"The British company founded in 1965 by Owen Finlay Maclaren, the inventor of the “umbrella-fold” buggy, told non-Americans they would be treated differently," reported the Financial Times. "Instead of a formal product recall, it was simply issuing warnings to owners not to let children stick their fingers in the folding mechanism as they opened the pushchairs. Repair kits to cover the hinges would not be automatically dispatched to every Maclaren owner, as in the U.S."

And that was a glaring example of how not to handle a recall, wrote John Gapper on his business blog. Lessons learned in this recall, he wrote, are: Be prepared, empathize, be polite and don't discriminate.

The U.S. recall was made following reports of 12 fingertip amputations here. Since then there have been reports of at least two amputations in England, according to The Independent newspaper.

We will continue to watch and report on the Maclaren recall. Also in the news this week:

Five of the craziest Chinese drywall stories we've heard
Popular Mechanics
Almost a year after news began breaking about bizarre happenings related to Chinese drywall, numerous questions remain unanswered. There is no consensus on a remediation strategy, on who will compensate homeowners for damage or even on the specific chemical culprit causing the problems. Despite the lack of definitive answers, the investigation so far certainly hasn't come up short on strange anecdotes. Read more ...

E. coli outbreak traced to company that halted testing of ground beef
The New York Times
A deadly outbreak of E. coli has been traced to a large producer of ground beef that stopped testing its ingredients years ago under pressure from beef suppliers. A facility in Ashville, N.Y., owned by the company, AFA Foods, recalled more than 500,000 pounds of ground beef on Oct. 31 after it was linked to an outbreak that has killed two people and sickened an estimated 500 others. Read more ...

Each year, more than 20,000 children are injured by shopping carts
The Kansan
Falls from shopping carts are among the leading causes of head injuries in young children, with one- and two-year-olds having the highest incidents of shopping cart-related injuries in the U.S. While the shopping cart might seem like the safest place for a child in the store, simple safety precautions are necessary to ensure a quick trip for groceries does not end in injury. Read more ...

Which cities are the safest for pedestrians?
The Christian Science Monitor
Some of the most dangerous places to walk or ride a bicycle in America are in the South—in fast-growing metropolitan areas that have built their streets mainly for automobiles. In fact, four of the five worst metro areas for walking or biking are in Florida: Orlando-Kissimmee, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville. The other metro area in this group of five is Memphis, Tenn. Read more ...

Beyond Nokia chargers: A brief history of recent technology recalls
Network World
While there are plenty of products customers probably wish had been recalled (OK, it's time to stop piling on Windows Vista), Nokia's recall Monday of millions of faulty cell phone chargers got us thinking about other recent technology recalls. Read more ...

Toyota is sued over concerns of sudden acceleration
The Los Angeles Times
A lawsuit filed this week by two Los Angeles County residents claims that the majority of Toyota and Lexus vehicles made since 2001 contain defective components that can cause unintended acceleration. Read more ...

Don't miss these recalls

• 85,000 Homelite backpack blowers (leaking gas tanks)
• 115,000 Gehl’s HOT TOP2 nacho cheese and chili sauce dispensers (fire and burn hazard)
• 13,000 Gander Mountain hang-on fixed position treestands (fall hazard)
• 6,400 Easton Sports bicycles with EA30 stems (fall hazard)