Total Recall: When Consumer Products Can Kill You

If you want to get the news in its purest form, click your way over to PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) and select "Today's News." You'll scroll down through press releases in time order, most recent releases first. It's fascinating when you compare which news "makes the cut" to reach mainstream media versus which news simply becomes a line or two on PR Newswire.

Today the overwhelming amount of news on PR Newswire pertained to the ongoing recall of unsafe consumer products--most of which have been imported from China (see my previous entries about China). To wit:

16:54 ET Curious George Plush Dolls Recalled by Marvel Toys Due to Risk of Lead Exposure
16:50 ET Cribs Sold by Bassett baby Recalled Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazard
16:48 ET Children's Sunglasses Recalled by Dollar General Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard
16:47 ET Yamaha Recalls AC Power Adaptors Due to Electric Shock Hazard
16:00 GMT American Honda Motor Corp. Recalls Lawn Mowers Due to Fire Hazard
16:00 GMT Coby Electronics Recalls DVD/CD/MP3 Players Due to Fire Hazard
01:29:50 GMT California Firm Recalls Frozen Beef Tamales That May Contain Pieces of Metal

That's about 8,900 Wendy Bellissimo collection convertible cribs (made in China and imported by Bassettbaby); about 22,000 Honda HRX217KHXA and HRX217KHMA lawn mowers (made in the U.S. by American Honda Motor Corp.); about 12,000 portable DVD/CD/MP3 players (imported by Coby Electronics Corp. and made in China); and about 49,000 Yamaha AC power adaptors (distributed by Yamaha Corporation of America and made in China).

Product recalls are big news lately, with most of the focus (rightly) on defective products made in China and imported to the U.S. Consumers in the United States buy about $2 trillion worth of products that are imported by more than 800,000 importers through more than 300 ports of entry.

President Bush says identifying unsafe products at these ports of entry has become an "increasingly unreliable" approach, and that a more effective approach might be to make sure products meet U.S. standards before they leave their countries of origin.

President Bush says this, but the people who work for him disagree with his approach. In fact, according to Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), "the notion of having premarket testing and clearance of those billions of products would be pretty unworkable... It would be throwing a fence around this country with respect to imports and I don't think American consumers would want that," she said.

I don't think American consumers want to DIE because the products we've imported are unsafe. So while the government fiddles, we burn.