Some of the results will include an array of photos and a sometimes detailed narrative about what happened. If you’re checking out a product, you can search by brand name, product name or type of product. “There’s a huge value in to the consumer because it empowers them with information,” CPSC spokeswoman Stacey Palosky said. The scoops were recalled in December after 16 incidents that led to six injuries. Had you had checked the database a couple of months before that recall, you would have seen an exploding scoop had injured a man.
If you wanted to see whether anyone else had the end blow off their Pampered Chef ice cream scoop, you would have found that you weren’t alone. The database breaks down some of the secrecy by giving nearly real-time access to safety complaints lodged by fellow consumers. It isn’t unusual for people – even babies – to get hurt from a known hazard while these deals are worked out between company lawyers and their government counterparts. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s role is to alert the public to product dangers, strict rules of disclosure keep most of the information away from the public until a tidy, negotiated deal is in place. When the federal government a year ago unveiled the long-awaited database of consumer-reported safety hazards (available to the public at ), it marked a bold new turn in product safety. ( MORE: Banks and Credit Unions Peddling Payday Loans)
That was among the arguments when critics in Congress tried – and failed – to remove funding for the nascent project. In that year, more than 6,500 reports were entered – about 97% of which came from consumers – muting early concerns by critics of the database that it would be filled up with entries from plaintiff’s lawyers. Follow an unsure start and a threat to its very existence, the government-run database that documents consumers’ safety issues with everything from dishwashers to tricycles survived its first year and is beginning to mature into the tool advocates had envisioned.
0 kommentar(er)
