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...
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...
For anyone who has followed the ups and downs and federal product safety regulation, the two recent dueling posts written for The Consumer Chronicle by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum (a Democrat) and CPSC Commissioner Nancy Nord (a Republican) represent a time-honored partisan split on how much regulation is necessary. I’ve been following the goings-on there on and off (more on than off) over the past...
Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and provided to TheConsumerChronicle.com. Great steps forward in consumer safety have been taken by your U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in the past month: On July 1, the CPSC voted unanimously to approve a new federal safety rule prohibiting drawstrings in children’s upper outerwear. On July 15, the CPSC...
About 7.5 million tea light candles sold over the past two years were recalled today (April 20) over concerns their containers can ignite, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The candles were sold under the Chesapeake Bay Candle and Modern Light brands. They were sold individually, but mostly in sets and were available at Target, Fred Meyer, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Wegmans and Supervalu stores. Prices ranged from...
Here’s some advice from my latest column on dealnews.com. There is something about March Madness that gets consumers’ gambling mojo going. Perhaps it’s that NCAA Tournament brackets are found in just about every workplace, web portal and newspaper. And if you want to bet on a particular game and aren’t near a casino sports book, the next place you might turn would be online — as most people do...
