Those harmed by unsafe products speak out Posted by Don Mays at 02/25/08 08:49 AM

Andrew Hartung came to Washington D.C. on February 7th to make sure baby products don’t hurt babies. It seems obvious – but will take major reform. So he joined several other families on the Hill to tell the press and Senators how the reforms they are now considering would keep kids safe.

One night, he and his wife Carolyn heard screams from their 14-month old daughter, Abigail’s, room. Her crib had partially collapsed. Andrew contacted the manufacturer—they told him it was an isolated incident. He reported the incident to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and 48 days later the crib was recalled after 85 reported incidents.

Shelby Esses’ son fell into a coma after ingesting Aqua Dots. While he was comatose, Shelby asked her family to scour store shelves searching for the ingredients in Aqua Dots. She also asked the manufacturer for the ingredients list, informing them of her son’s illness. As the company did their own research, Shelby’s hospital found that the ingredients metabolized into a chemical similar to the date rape drug, and a few days later the product was recalled. Thankfully, her son recovered completely.

Colton Burkhart, who swallowed a lead medallion from a vending machine, continues to struggle with the effects of lead poisoning. His experience resulted in the largest recall in U.S. history – 150 million vending machine trinkets. Even after chelation therapy and constant supervision, his lead levels are still high and if he breaks a bone or has a growth spurt his lead levels will rise.

Tate Leisy told his son’s harrowing ordeal after swallowing magnets from their Magnetix toy. Tate did not know the magnets has fallen out from the toy and watched his son, Tegan, suffer in the hospital for several days. Tegan needed emergency surgery. Doctors found 11 holes in his stomach along with 6-8 magnets. They removed 6 inches of his intestines.

Lavina Bowman’s son, Devlin, suffered a similar experience. Devlin swallowed magnets from his sister’s Polly Pockets dolls. Suddenly screaming in pain, they rushed him to the hospital, where he was sent by ambulance to another hospital over 180 miles away for emergency surgery.

The powerful little magnets in so many children’s toys are very, very dangerous. Millions of toys were ultimately recalled before Christmas because the magnets fell out and could be picked up and swallowed by toddlers. More toys have been recalled after the holidays for lead and other hazards. Unfortunately, most recalled products are never returned to the manufacturer and remain in circulation. That’s why recalls are not enough. Products should be safe for kids before they get to our store shelves.

After telling their stories to the press and others who gathered to listen, each family visited with the Senate offices from each of their states, sometimes meeting personally with their Senator. Legislation to significantly improve product safety (S. 2045) is now in the Senate, and will soon get a vote. These families made a huge contribution, and we hope to be celebrating a victory for safety very soon.

Joining Consumers Union at the event were bill sponsor Senator Pryor and our partners in support of this legislation, Consumer Federation of America, Kids in Danger, Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Public Citizen.

comments (2)

1 Posted by Mini Richards at 02/28/08 04:10 PM

It is disgraceful that our government allowed bad quality meat to be distributed to our people, including the schools!!!Was the livestock sanitary board inspector out to lunch or just irresponsible? This is another among hundreds of unforgivable acts that have ocured in the days of this present administration in Washington. They simply care less about anything unless it smells of oil!!!!!!!!!!!

2 Posted by Bill Doak at 02/28/08 04:39 PM

Quite a post by Don Mays. I don't think I can do all that reference work with active links to the data he cites.
Getting back to the meat issue. In Connecticut the state issued a list of the school systems supplied with the suspect beef following the 'downer' cattle video scare. The cattle industry noted that the beef supply in the United States is safe, commenting that of the millions of cattle processed, only two came back positive for BSE. Not exactly the most reassuring news, especially as the source and location of the infected animals is considered a government secret, and heretofore existence of any contaminated cattle was denied.
In the wake of that, another, less public recall of Progresso Italian Wedding Soup which may have used meat from the affected stockyard was issued. A visit to the local store - which had large stacks of the same soup on sale - showed all of that particular brand removed.
BUT - No signs were visible where consumers could read about the recalled soups, and possibly return them to the store. Also I am sure the store's computer system, using the product purchase information and matching it to the consumer's rewards cards, could mail a postcard to any customer in its database to warn them of the purchase and recall. Why isn't that voluntarily done as a matter of course? Do we really need to pass a law to force stores to 'do the right thing'? If that is the case, then, yes, I intend to suggest to my state legislator that we do exactly that. If the information is right at a company's fingertips that would help protect the consumer from possible danger, it behooves that company to do more than just pull a product off the shelf. The store should, within reason, be proactive in tracking down its customers who it believes may be harmed by the purchase of a product, sold in good faith, that was later recalled by the manufacturer.
Bill Doak
editor
The East Hartford Gazette