Looking Back on the Most Dangerous Products and Consumer Recalls Last Year
Was 2015 the year of defective products? Over the last year, consumers across the country have read many news articles and heard dozens of reports about dangerous products that could pose unnecessary harm to them and their family members. Many of the items recalled in 2015 posed serious risks of child injury and even death. Now that we have entered a new year, we can look back at statistics for 2015 for trends in product defect claims. According to a recent report from WRAL News, one way to gauge the rate of product recalls is to look at the number and type of recalls we saw last year. When we look at recalls based on the “total number of units recalled,” we can see that dangerous automobile parts and food products topped the list.
The Takata airbag recall was the largest of last year. The defect in these airbags led to a recall of 34 million products—“by far the largest recall event of 2015,” according to the report. The Takata airbag defect resulted in the recall of more than 5 million Toyota and Nissan vehicles, and 4.5 million Honda vehicles. Yet these airbags were not the only defective automobile parts. Numerous car manufacturers were forced to recall vehicles due to safety risks. For instance, Toyota recalled 6.5 million cars after learning that power windows could “short circuit, overheat, and cause a fire.”
Other major recalls—at least in terms of numbers—tended to impact the food industry. The article reports that food contamination also resulted in a substantial number of recalls. For instance, Kraft Heinz recalled two million pounds of turkey bacon after consumers reported serious illnesses after consuming the product, and Aspen foods recalled nearly two million pounds of chicken as a result of potential salmonella poisoning.
Learning More About Consumer Recalls and Staying Up to Date
Dangerous products in the marketplace can cause serious illnesses and can pose unnecessary safety risks to our children and loved ones. What can you do to ensure that you stay in the know about consumer recalls and defective products? According to an article in Good Housekeeping Magazine, the following are some of the best ways to use social media and technology to ensure that you are up-to-date about any dangerous products that could hurt your family members:
- Sign up for email updates from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC): the CPSC provides a free service of updating consumers about recalls, and you do not have to receive notices about any and all recalls. You can tailor the updates to your needs. As the article notes, “the subscription is free and can be customized to deliver pretty much any type of information you want, however often you want.”
- Follow the CPSC on Twitter: if you follow @OnSafety, you can see information about product recalls through this social media platform.
- Use Google+: the CPSC posts information about potentially hazardous products on its Google+ page.
- Check the CPSC YouTube channel: informational videos from the CPSC are on its YouTube channel, include “regular ‘Recall Roundup’ videos that feature all the products recalled that week.”
If you or a loved one sustained injuries as a result of a dangerous consumer product, you can contact a product liability lawyer to learn more about your rights.
