By Wayne Hogan and Leslie Goller
Elliot Kaye, head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, has reported that a “good” recall results in only about 20% of the dangerous product being taken off the market. For a typical recall, 95% are still in the hands of consumers 5 years after the recall. Equally as troubling, there is no minimum or specific requirement under Federal Law as to how much time, effort, or money a manufacturer must spend to notify the public that their product is under a safety recall. The result: very few of the millions of items recalled each year are actually widely publicized allowing the items to be withdrawn from use or fixed.
Consumers must be cautious when buying products from online resellers. Listed products may have already been recalled, but are sold anyway. It is illegal to sell recalled products, but it happens all the time. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is making this a priority. So far, eBay and Amazon have responded positively, filtering their listings against recall notices. However, Craigslist has refused.
Terrell • Hogan cares about your family’s safety and posts information about recalls on our website. To see if a product you’ve purchased has been recalled, here is the link to www.SaferProducts.gov.
ABC News: Recall Roulette