This week, Consumer Reports is launching a major new initiative to deliver critical, time-sensitive information on recalled and unsafe products to the homes of millions of school-aged children.  We’ve teamed up with the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to distribute Web-based safety alerts and recall notices on children’s products including toys, food, furniture and clothing.

We’ve created a Web site that features news and videos of the latest children’s product recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food & Drug Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The National PTA is distributing the link to the site through e-mail newsletters sent to its members at least every two weeks.  Additionally, the NSBA has agreed to distribute and help promote the online resource to millions of its members.
 
Tens of millions of children are needlessly exposed to unsafe products and foods. Each year, approximately 50 children are killed, hundreds are sickened, and thousands are injured by these products.  In 2008, the CPSC recorded 563 recalls for 43 million unsafe products. Two-thirds, or 29 million units, were toys, nursery products, clothing, and other children’s products that posed risks of strangulation, poisoning or choking.

Unfortunately, many recall notices never make it to the home of affected consumers. Toy giant Mattel once acknowledged to Congress that it typically sees less than a 10 percent consumer response rate to its recalls.  If that is indeed typical, then too many children are left in harm's way. 
 
The mission of our safety initiative is to reduce the number of unsafe products in the marketplace and in the homes of consumers. This program will go a long way to warn families about unsafe products and foods that may be lurking in their homes or the homes of friends, relatives and caretakers.—Don Mays 

Watch these safety videos

• Bike helmet safety
• Safety gate hazards
• Staying safe in the sun