Product Safety Recalls RSS Feed

I encourage you to visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site (www.cspi.gov) and subscribe to the Commission's RSS feeds regarding product safety recalls. You can find the feeds here: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/rss.html. I've been visiting this site a lot recently for unrelated reasons, and I've been surprised by the number of consumer product recalls that are posted to the site. For example, at least 30 new recalls have been announced this month (April, 2009). They range from Specialized bicycles that were recalled because of a defective cable stop to Evenflo highchairs recalled because of choking and fall risks.

What I've realized from looking at these recall notices is that (a) we trust our lives and safety to various consumer products every day and (b) we probably never hear about recalls that affect the consumer products we own and use. Basically, unless you return the product registration card to the manufacturer or the product defect is so egregious that it makes the news, you'll never be notified that a product you own has been recalled. So please, subscribe to the CSPI's RSS feeds or to their e-mail newsletter. I promise that it won't be very long until a product is recalled that you either own or know someone who owns.