Sick and Tired of Recalls!

Posted by Lana on Mar 18, 2010 in Featured, Mama and Baby | 1 comment

It seems like lately, everything from the food we eat, toys our children play with - to now even the cars we drive are being recalled at an alarming rate. What are we to do? Stop driving, grow our own food, and only allow our children to play with wooden spoons? (roll eyes). What’s sad is that by the time an item is recalled, it’s already done a lot of damage to unsuspecting, innocent individuals just like you and me who put our trust in companies to give us safe and effective products. Just today, I saw where Graco has recalled a line of high chairs. The affected Harmony models were produced between November 2003 through December 2009 and sold at major retailers nationwide, including Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.

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This especially frightens me, because I have been shopping for a high chair; and a Graco at that! In January, 600,000 Dorel Asia cribs were recalled after a 6 month old strangled after getting trapped in the crib when the drop-side hardware broke. The child’s parents were using the crib after trying to repair it themselves. Now the company is offering to send free repair kits to prevent further incidents.

Let’s see what else has there been: peanut butter, spinach, baby slings, strollers, dog food, Nestles Toll House Cookies (that one really devastated me). One has to wonder – Is it laziness on the part of manufacturers? Is it our need of being the most industrious country in the world to churn out products as quickly as possible? I think I speak for many when I say SLOW DOWN and take the time to give the people what we deserve…defective free products and food! It’s going to get to where we completely lose faith in the brand names we’ve trusted for generations, and take our business to local, hardworking private companies who care about the quality, not quantity of their service and products. That’s just my two cents.

In order to stay abreast of recalls, go to www.recalls.gov

Quoted from their website:

To provide better service in alerting the American people to unsafe, hazardous or defective products, six federal agencies with vastly different jurisdictions have joined together to create www.recalls.gov — a “one stop shop” for U.S. Government recalls.

Be among the first to receive new recalls and safety information electronically. Enroll in this free service by signing up for direct notification of recalls from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food & Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Another very useful website is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. There you can sign up for email announcements, report an unsafe product, and view and order publications on a wide variety of consumer safety issues.

Taking the time to stay connected with current news regarding recalls is at least one way to know for sure that you are doing your part in protecting your loved ones.