Occasionally we highlight product recalls from manufacturers due to defects in design or incorrect material specifications that can lead to injury or death. Often these recalls circulate around the internet for a while and the end user of the defective item might never find out about the deficiency in the product until it is too late. A manufacturer does not have to wait to be notified by the government agency in charge of overseeing consumer safety with regards to a defective products and can imitated a recall on their own; but they always partner with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) during the recall.
The CPSC has one purpose – for over 30 years they have been “protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction.” This is a fairly simple mission, but it can be difficult to get the word out about a defective product especially if the number of items that were manufactured is small. For example, one recall that was just announced was from C.O. Lynch was only for 5,200 units sold as Itasca Fusion Hiker boots by Big 5 Sports from March 2011 and June 2011. This is a small window of time and a small number of units – this certainly will not make the evening news.
As with a lot of things in life, you have to seek out the information it will not magically appear for you. The CPSC does make searching and reporting of defective products easier for consumers. For about five months now, the website SaferProducts.gov has been up and running providing consumers with a searchable database of all products under the jurisdiction of the CPSC. Continue reading Safety First! Product Recalls by the CPSC