Might what you just bought be fatally flawed?
It’s something you might not hear about until it’s too late — a product recall.
Be it dishes, that cute bracelet you got for your little granddaughter, an infant car seat, or even your car itself, recalls go on constantly. And often, we’re the last to know!
Certainly, where our kids and grandkids are concerned, we want to be as safe as we possibly can. But no matter how old you are, you’re not immune to these hidden dangers.
That’s why it’s a good idea to know a few simple tricks that can keep you and your family protected from careless manufacturing processes and dangerous imports that can harm and even put your life — and the people you love — in jeopardy.
Avoiding agency roulette<
The “re-announcement” of IKEA’s recall of children’s chests and dressers is a classic case of too little information being put out too late.
After seven children were reported to have been tragically killed by toppling IKEA dressers, now we’re hearing about an eighth toddler who has died. The parents of 2-year-old Jozef Dudek, who was discovered trapped under IKEA’s Malm dresser, calls the company’s recall efforts of last year “lame” and “ineffective.”
While that’s a worst-case scenario, defective merchandise, contaminated food, and dangerous cars are being sold all the time. And the crazy patchwork quilt of federal regulations makes keeping track of them as efficient as herding cats. (I’ll give you some tips, however, on how to do that in a minute).
To make things as confusing as possible, there are four separate government agencies responsible for practically everything you eat, drink, drive, and put in your home. And you know how well federal agencies play together, right?
For example, while the FDA is responsible for the food we eat (and, of course, the drugs we take), that doesn’t include meat, poultry, and eggs. That means a tofurkey recall would come from the FDA… but if it was the real deal, the USDA would be in charge.
Vehicles are under the auspices of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which can turn the screws, so to speak, and get a car manufacturer to initiate a recall.
Everything else we use is in the hands of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). If anything from a kids’ toy to a food processor has a safety defect or can poison or harm, the CPSC gets involved.
So, it’s easy to see why we end up depending on TV news broadcasts to break these recall stories to us!
But, suppose you don’t tune into the news on any given night? And unless a recall involves millions of products, chances are pretty good it’s not going to get reported on the news anyway.
That’s why you want to start doing whatever you possibly can to stay on top of this potential danger, with one very important step being to return that product “registration card.”
Now, certainly you’ve noticed one of those cards falling out of practically every single thing you buy. And, as Consumer Reports confirms, that registration card is often used simply as a ruse to collect data on us!
But even though it’s rare for a company to make good on a promise to let you know if their item has been recalled, that’s only true with the exception of the two categories — children’s items and tires (yes, tires get recalled all the time!).
So, if you do fill out a product registration card, only provide the minimum amount of personal information necessary.
Cars are another category where it’s fairly certain that you’ll be notified of a recall, big or small. Just make sure that if you’ve recently moved, you update your vehicle registration, which is the address car manufacturers use to contact you.
For everything else, you may have to do some checking on your own.
Two of the best ways to do that are by going to recalls.gov, where you can find out about recalled food products, drugs, cars, boats, and everything in-between.
Another is to check out the Good Housekeeping top product recall list at: goodhousekeeping.c
And absolutely, positively, always make an official complaint to both the company and the appropriate federal agency if you have reason to believe any product or food is dangerous or contaminated.
To show you how important that is, the NHTSA reports that most all car recalls begin with consumer complaints.
“IKEA dressers that killed 8 children were not effectively recalled, say critics” Kerry Justick, November, 27, 2017, Yahoo, yahoo.com
