Are recall notices being seen by the people who own the unsafe products? To find out, our Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a nationally representative survey of more than 2,000 Americans. We called households during August 2010 to ask about consumer awareness of recalls focusing on products (other than cars), food, and medicine. 

The responses tell us that there have been big problems over the past three years. 

Product registration cards are a key way for manufacturers to get the word directly to consumers about recalled items, yet 58 percent of the people we spoke to rarely or never filled out those cards. 

One in five consumers was aware they had bought medicine, food, or a product that was subsequently recalled in the past three years, and more than half had learned about the recall from news reports. Not surprisingly, one in five Americans was concerned that they missed a recall. 

Most Americans are very concerned that they are not receiving adequate safety information. 

When asked, American consumers stated that receiving appropriate safety information is critical to them, especially when it comes to children's products. On a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being lowest concern and 10 highest, medicine, food, kids' toys and sporting equipment, and nursery furniture all received scores of 8.7 or higher.  

Has industry met the needs of the public? The answer appears to be a resounding no. Only 8 percent of the survey respondents were very (and 40 percent somewhat) confident that government agencies get appropriate safety information from manufacturers and retailers. Consumers are similarly not very confident that they're getting needed information from manufacturers and retailers either. In fact, 44 percent of the respondents saw avoiding lawsuits as the leading reason behind recalls; only 39 percent cited safety. 

Americans also express doubts about whether they're getting adequate recall information from government agencies, schools, and media sources.

--Mark Kotkin, Director, Survey Research