3-On Your Side: Importance Of Recall Alerts
PHILADELPHIA (CBS3) - How safe are the products found in and around your home? Would you know if any one of them has been recalled? As 3-On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan finds, not being aware of product recalls, can put your family at risk.
16-month old Danny Keysar had been napping in his daycare center when the side on a crib like this one collapsed. The side of the crib caught his neck and suffocating him. As it turns out, that crib had been recalled 5 years earlier. Danny's mother Linda Keysar says, "We really didn't believe it. How such a deadly crib could be in a licensed daycare."
Every year the Consumer Product Safety Commission issues nearly 500 recalls involving millions of products. But many consumers never get the message, leaving dangerous products lingering in homes or up for sale on the internet.
Selling a recalled product is against federal law. Last year alone, the CPSC shut down nearly a thousand online auctions involving recalled items. But it's still not hard to find dangerous items for sale, like a crib which was recalled several months ago and lawn darts that have been banned since 1988.
To help consumers learn about recalls manufacturers are now required to include registration cards with infant and toddler products like cribs and high chairs. If there's a recall consumers will be personally notified. It's known as Danny's Law, named after little Danny Keysar. Linda Keysar says, "With his absence our family is never going to be complete, I guess that we have this cause instead of our son."
When you purchase any product, be sure to fill out those registration cards as soon as possible. Also sign up for recall alerts at www.recalls.gov.
