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You can enter your kids’ toys here and find out if they’ve been recalled for toxins. [HealthyToys.org]
Thanks for visiting Consumerist.com. As of October 2017, Consumerist is no longer producing new content, but feel free to browse through our archives. Here you can find 12 years worth of articles on everything from how to avoid dodgy scams to writing an effective complaint letter. Check out some of our greatest hits below, explore the categories listed on the left-hand side of the page, or head to CR.org for ratings, reviews, and consumer news.
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You can enter your kids’ toys here and find out if they’ve been recalled for toxins. [HealthyToys.org]
This Old Navy boys windbreaker has a waist drawstring, a big “no no” according to the CPSC’s children’s clothing safety guidelines. You can either cut the drawstring out, or return the jacket to Old Navy for a full refund and get a $5 gift card for your trouble, meaning you’ve essentially been paid $5 to let your kid to wear a jacket.
Toy drive organizers are recruiting extra volunteers to help them “throw away” recalled toys, says USAToday.
Based on an advocacy group’s “10 Most Dangerous Toys” list, an Arkansas man became convinced that a Dora the Explorer lamp sold at Walmart posed an imminent electrical shock threat to any children for whom which it was bought, so he conducted his own personal recall…
The Times brings us the story of vigilant consumers who successfully drove regulatory agencies to yank dangerous toys from store shelves. We have argued, along with the CPSC, that consumer testing is an utter waste of time, but consumers who are willing to bring their suspicious toys to a professional lab are able to have a surprising impact.
While Aquadots grabbed all the news this month, 1,391,800 products were recalled for lead contamination. Most of them were cheap toy jewelry, cars, and action figures. The sort of stuff you see at “dollar stores.”
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RECALLS: DesignWare Confetti Bursts (lead) (How do you even get lead on confetti? Easy. Lead-based paint) Sweetwater Valley Farms Sharp and Mild Cheddar (Listeria).
A survey of global manufacturers found that only 22% have reviewed their supply chain in light of the Mattel lead toy recall situation. Of that number, 1/3 said they would change how they go about evaluating suppliers. 30% said they were sending quality inspectors to overseas plants. Most of the executives said their greatest fear in doing business with China wasn’t defective products, but that the Chinese would make knockoffs of their wares.
The first retailer to be mentioned in a holiday ornament recall this year is JC Penney! The ornament in question was sold at “various retailers nationwide, including JC Penney catalog and Web site, from July 2006 through October 2007 for between $15 and $18.”
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Recalls: Dick’s Sporting Goods Lazy Loungers and Recliners (collapsing), Chintzy Reeves International horse ornaments (lead).
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RECALLS: 686,500 Nissan Altima and Sentra cars (engine stalling), Bon-Ton hooded sweatshirts (strangulation), Dick’s Sporting Goods “Power Bolt” Pitchbacks (laceration), Meijer Firepits (can tip over and start fire), Performax and Wilton 10″ Sliding Miter Saws (laceration), 95,927 pounds of American Foods Group beef (E. coli), 98,000 pounds of Double B Foods frozen sausage products (Listeria).
If you bought a Toyota Prius and have been trying to pass an emissions test in Georgia, you’re probably pretty stressed out right about now.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which recently held hearings about the state of toy safety in the U.S. What did Sen. Durbin take away from those hearings?
Meat processed by American Foods Group of Green Bay, WI has been recalled following an investigation by the Illinois Department of Health. The meat was sold in bulk quantities to retailers and distributors and may not be easily identifiable to consumers, says the USDA:
The products subject to recall were distributed for further processing and repackaging and will not bear the recalling firm’s establishment number on the package. As the use-by date for products subject to this recall may have expired, consumers can contact their retailers to ask if they received any of these products and if so, consumers are urged to look in their freezers for these products and return or discard them if found.
Here’s something everyone can be thankful for—the Chinese, Europeans, and tangentially everyone in America and the rest of the world who have spent the better part of last year dodging lead bullets from the factory nation. The European Union’s consumer chief has said that China has made “quantum leaps” in improving its safety protocols, and will therefore not face a ban in the EU.
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RECALLS: Baja Motorsports ATVs (lack of tire pressure gauge), L.L. Bean Snow And Sandcastle Kit (sharp edges), Family Dollar Metal Jewelry (lead),Cooper Lighting Fluorescent Shop Lights (electrical shock),Discount School Supply Paint Brushes (lead),Metal Jewelry Sold at Michaels Stores (lead),La Femme NY Inc. Children’s Necklace and Earring Sets (lead),Children’s Metal Jewelry (lead),Cherrydale Fundraising Bracelets (lead),Buy-Rite Children’s Metal Jewelry (lead),Children’s Pencil Pouches Sold In Schools Nationwide (lead), Slipcovers Used With Boppy Pillows (choking and lead), Visual Presenters (fire), Flashing Pacifiers (choking)Heartland® Brand Graham Pie Crusts (undeclared almonds, milk and coconut), Charlemagne Dark Chocolate Organic Bars (undeclared milk), True Man’s Sexual Energy Max, Dietary Supplement (secretly Viagra).
This week, California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against 20 companies implicated in the various lead-tainted toy fiascos of 2007. The lawsuit “alleges that the companies violated the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986… because they didn’t notify customers of toys in the marketplace that contained high concentrations of lead.” The federal government doesn’t require such labeling, but California does.
The distributor of children’s toy Aqua Dots, which contained beads that turned into a date rape drug if ingested, is refusing to give refunds to parents. Instead, they want to offer a replacement toy. Some parents are mad as they don’t understand why they should forced to accept another toy from a company that sold them poison the first time around. Here comes the lawsuit! Parents who would rather get a different toy can go to aquadotsrecall.com.
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