For new parents in particular, recalls can be the cause of a lot of anxiety. Are my baby’s toys dangerous? Is the crib safe? I have that recalled car seat, now what? The editors of Parents magazine’s website, Parents.com, invited me to explain the process and help demystify the recall experience. As someone who has written about recalls since the 1990s and a parent, I understand how confusing it...
If you were ever suspicious that Facebook was sharing your personal information, now you know. The social networking giant settled charges that it duped consumers into believing their information could be kept private and then shared it, the Federal Trade Commission said today. The settlement requires Facebook to be clearer about what it could do with user information and obligates the company to get consumer consent before overriding their...
Nearly 100 infants have been hurt falling out of Bumbo Baby Seats, a total that has grown since their recall in 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday — issuing a warning about the danger. At least 45 babies that have gotten hurt falling from the chairs while they were above ground level. The injured babies ranged in age from 3 months to 10 months old....
The BBC show The World has once again raised the issue of whether food from China is safe. More of our food is coming from there and that is cause for concern for many. After the melamine poisoning deaths among Chinese children and other high profile health threats from food there, it makes sense that consumers would have pause. How big a deal is it? Well, for any family...
Spin Master, distributor of Aqua Dots — a toy recalled after it was learned they turned toxic when wet following the hospitalization of two toddlers — agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle charges the company failed to report a known hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. About a dozen children are believed to have been sickened by Aqua Dots. “To have a toxic chemical on a toy...
An analysis of the first six months of entries in the government-run database of product hazards reported by the public uncovered a disturbing statistic: About one of every seven complaints was about a product already recalled. The report by the safety advocacy group Kids in Danger highlights how many recalls are not only not acted on by consumers, but are completely missed. Kids in Danger analyzed more than 2,400...
Little Tikes is recalling another than 1.7 million of its Little Tikes Workshop and Tool Sets — durable toys that haven’t been sold in seven years — over concerns that the included plastic toy nails are choking hazards for small children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said today. About 1.6 million of the sets were recalled in 2009 following reports that a toddler had been hospitalized after a...
Comcast’s boastful claims about its Xfinity service having the “best HD Picture quality” and the “fastest Internet available” should be changed or dropped because they’re not accurate, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus said. The body looked into a complaint lodged by Comcast rival Verizon, whose fiber optic service FiOS was the target of some of the ad claims. “At issue in this case...
About 2 million containers of gel fuel sold by 10 different companies are being recalled after federal investigators connected the product to two deaths and about three dozen serious burn injuries. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission launched an investigation into gel fuels in mid-June and recalled nearly a half-million containers made by Napa Home & Garden sold under the FIREGEL and NAPAfire brands. The agency determined the fuels...
Target, which earlier this month recalled more than 200,000 step stools, is recalling another 341,000 after more than two dozen consumers reported incidents involving the stools breaking, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The step stools, which have storage compartments, were sold at Target stores and the company’s website for $25-$30 between January 2007 and October 2010. The CSPC said Target heard from 27 consumers about the stools...
