summary of findings for kid's after recall: dangerous products remain in homes
DESCRIPTION
This a summary of some of the key findings that Kids In Danger (KID) uncovered in their 13th annual recall report. This year's report, After Recall: Dangerous Products Remain in Homes, focused on recall report data from 2013 children's product recalls and 2012 monthly reports on 2012 children's product recalls to determine recall trends and effectiveness. All data was either acquired through the CPSC or collected by KID. All analysis was done by KID.TRANSCRIPT
After the Recall:Dangerous Products Remain in Homes
A Summary of Findings
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Summary of Important Findings
Children’s product recalls (114) and the deaths (11) associated with them increased in 2013.
Incidents (1,566) and Injuries (196) involving a recalled children’s product decreased in 2013.
There were 63 recalls in 2013 where the manufacturer had a Facebook page, but only nine incidences where the manufacturer mentioned their product recall on Facebook.
Only 10% of 2012 recalled children’s products were successfully corrected, replaced or returned. Over 81% of all 2012 recalled children’s products are believed to be with
consumers, but consumers have the lowest recall success rate at less than 5%. 2012 recalled children’s products found with manufacturers accounted for less than
1% of the products, but manufacturers have the highest recall success rate at 94%.
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Children’s product recalls and deaths increase in 2013.
Children’s product recalls (114) and deaths related to children’s product recalls (11) increased from 2012.
Recalls increased by 18%.
Deaths increase by 22%.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
50100150200250300350400450
Recalls 2001 - 2013
Children's Product Recalls All Other Recalls 20012002
20032004
20052006
20072008
20092010
20112012
20130
5
10
15
20
Deaths Reported Prior to Recall by Year
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Incidents and Injuries related to recalled children’s products decrease in 2013.
Incidents (1,566) and injuries (196) related to children’s product recalls decreased from 2012.
Incidents decreased by 18%.
Injuries decrease by 22%.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
500100015002000250030003500400045005000
Incidents Reported Prior to Recall by Year
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Injuries Reported Prior to Recall by Year
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Children’s product recalls by product type.
Children’s clothing and nursery products accounted for 51% of recalled children’s products.
Clothing and nursery products accounted for 52% of the reported injuries in 2013.
Furniture was involved in 4 of the 11 deaths, while 7 deaths were related to nursery products in 2013.
Type of Recall
# Recalls % of Children’s Recalls
# of Units % of Units
Children’s Recalls
114 100% 11,189,462 100%
Clothing 33 29% 1,064,324 10%
Nursery 25 22% 2,666,070 24%
Toys 23 20% 366.651 3%
Furniture 14 12% 4,245,850 39%
Outdoor & Sports
11 10% 346,517 3%
Misc. 4 4% 187,550 2%
Medicine 3 3% 2,308,500 21%
Utensils 1 1% 4,000 0.04%
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Injuries related to 2013 recalled children’s products. There were 196 injuries associated with 2013 recalled products.
The five products with the most injuries reported prior to recall accounted for 132 of the 196 injuries (67%).
Product Manufacturer # Injuries Hazards
Baby Einstein Musical Motion Activity Jumpers
Kids II 61 Impact
Tornado brand home playground tube slides with portholes
Solowave Design Corp.
23 Laceration
Jeep Liberty Strollers Kolcraft Enterprise Inc.
18 Projectile
Rock’N Play Infant Sleeper
Fisher Price 16 Mold
Step2 Whisper Ride Touring Wagon
The Step2 Company 14 Fall
Baja Motorsports Mini Bike
Baja Inc. 13 Fall & Crash
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Deaths associated with 2013 recalled children’s products. There were five children’s product recalls associated with at least one death in
2013.
Three of the eleven deaths reported in 2013 were caused by furniture tip overs.
Three of the eleven deaths reported in 2013 were the result of cord strangulations.
Product Manufacturer # Deaths Hazards
Nap Nanny & Chill Infant Recliners
Baby Matters LLC 5 Entrapment, Fall
Angelcare Movement & Sound Baby Monitor
Angelcare 2 Strangulation
Million Dollar Baby Dressers
Bexco 2 Entrapment
Children’s Wall-Mounted Lamp
IKEA 1 Strangulation
Natart Chelsea Dressers
Gemme Juvenile 1 Entrapment
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Penalties assessed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in 2013.
The CPSC collected over $5 million in fines from children’s product manufacturers for failure to report violations.
Manufacturer Product Involved
Amount of fine/agreed settlement
Hazard Violation
Kolcraft Enterprises Inc.
Travelin’ Tot Play Yards
$400,000 Fall Failure to report
Ross Stores Children’s Upper Outerwear
$3,900,000 Choking Failure to report
Whalen Furniture Manufacturing Inc.
Boat-Themed Children’s Beds
$725,000 Entrapment, Strangulation
Failure to report
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Social Media not effectively used to raise awareness of recalls.
Of the 114 children’s products recalled in 2013, 63 were manufactured by companies with a Facebook page.
There were only nine recall notification posts on manufacturers’ Facebook pages.
Of the 114 children’s products recalled in 2013, 63 were manufactured by companies with a Twitter account.
There were only eight recall notification tweets from manufacturers’ Twitter accounts.
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Recall effectiveness dismal for 2012 children’s product recalls.
Monthly progress reports from the CPSC show that only 10% of 2012 recalled children’s products were fixed or destroyed.
Recalled products held by manufacturers accounted for 0.67% of all effected units and had a recall success rate of 94%.
Effected units suspected to be with consumers accounted for 81.58% of all recalled children’s products, but consumers’ recall success rate stood at 4.6%.
Percent of Products
Corrected or Destroyed
Percent of Units Possessed
Manufacturer 94% 0.67%
Distributor 53% 3.37%
Retailers 52% 4.85%
Consumers 4.6% 81.58%
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Recall notification methods mostly not correlated with consumer awareness.
Many linear regression models were run to see if manufacturers’ recall notification methods impacted consumer awareness.
Only two statistically significant relationships were found. On average it takes 1,000 direct mail letters to raise the
awareness of one consumer. On average a television program must run 2,500 times before
one consumer requests more information from a manufacturer about the recalled product.
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Multiple reports of incidents and injuries from 2012 recalls occurring after recall.
There were 584 incidents and 39 injuries associated with 2012 recalled children’s products reported after the recall.
Nursery products accounted for most of the after-recall injuries (28).
Outdoor & sports products accounted for most of the after-recall incidents (565). The Flexible Flyer Swing made up 532 of these incidents. It has been
responsible for a total of 1,190 incidents and 17 injuries.
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Recommendations Manufacturers and the CPSC should work
together to streamline the process for voluntary recalls so as to issue recalls before the majority of products reach consumers.
There should be more transparency in the recall process. The only way to hold manufacturers accountable and thus raise recall effectiveness is to make recall information more readably available to the public. The Monthly Corrective Action reports we received through FOIA were often not filed in a timely matter, missing information or containing mathematically impossible calculations – indicating they are not reviewed for accuracy. Making those reports public would increase awareness of concerns with recalls.
Consumers have to be aware of a recall and know how to comply to raise effectiveness rates. Just as marketing departments would never agree to just one touchpoint to sell a product, the recall efforts should involve multiple methods of reaching the consumers most likely to have the product.
More mandatory standards for products with high numbers of incidents, injuries, and deaths especially within the nursery are needed to reduce the threat they pose to children. In addition, products such as the Nap Nanny which are put onto the market with no standard or safety testing have catastrophic results in numbers of deaths and injuries. There must be a method to keep these products out of our nurseries until they are proven safe.
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Contact Information and Further Resources
For more information contact KID Email: [email protected] Phone: 312-595-0649
For a copy of After the Recall: Dangerous Products Remain in Homes visit KID’s website Report in Totality Important Information about the Report
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