SaferProducts.gov

Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $900 billion annually.

In an effort to identify product hazards quicker and provide consumers with safety information on products in and around the home, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched a new centralized federal database of people’s safety complaints about thousands of products. Consumers can use the site to report safety concerns or injuries linked to common products ranging from children's toys to power tools. They also, for the first time, will be able to easily search through recent reports about safety issues involving specific products. The database is accessible through the Commission’s website and directly at http://www.saferproducts.gov/. Previously, to get access to the same information, people had to file Freedom of Information requests for data, a cumbersome and lengthy process.

The CPSC will continue to collect reports of dangerous product incidents from multiple channels, including telephone, email, postal mail, and online, just as it has done in the past. The CPSC has up to 5 days to review a report to ensure that it does not offer materially inaccurate or insubstantial information. If the report is adequate, the CPSC will refer the report to the product’s manufacturer. The manufacturer then has 10 days to address the complaint and, if it chooses, can post its response in the database. After this review process, the original consumer complaint and any manufacturer response is made public online. Information about mandatory or voluntary recalls of the product will also appear in the database. CPSC has said that submitted reports will not become public if they are incomplete, “materially inaccurate,” or expose confidential information. Reports submitted anonymously will also not be made public.

The new database is intended to reduce risks and injuries by informing the general public of a potentially dangerous product earlier in the complaint process.