You've undoubtedly heard the horror stories of babies who have fallen through spaces in cribs, suffocated to death, eaten toy parts and choked, received rashes from unapproved baby foods and supplements, and, well the list of horror stories goes on.
In a vast, consumer economy such as modern-day American affords us, new and existing parents must rely on their own wit and investigative skills to ensure the safety of their children time and time again.
If you don't already check recalls on a regular basis, you should make it a habit. At least one new product recall related to children is published every month. Sometimes those recalls are for products that are relatively new to the market. Other times recalls are issued for products that have been on the market for years, increasing the risk of having a dangerous or life-threatening product lying around your home or in your car.
Various government agencies are responsible for ensuring consumer safety and protection. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is one of those agencies and is one of the major sources of information when it comes to recalls of child and consumer products.
It used to be that you had to search their web site on a regular basis to get the latest information on all bad baby products. With advances in Internet technology and the spreading popularity of RSS Feeds, staying up to date with bad baby products is now easier than ever before!
The CPSC offers consumers an RSS Feed for recently issued recalls. Personal home-page sites like iGoogle and MyYahoo! provide consumers with the ability to add these feeds. AOL, Netscape, and other e-Mail providers may also offer similar services. Access the "Add Content" (Yahoo!), "Add Stuff" (iGoogle), or equivalent sections of your personal home page where you would go to personalize content. Then, search for "US Consumer Product Safety Commission" and add the RSS feed to your page. You'll know you did it right when you see recall titles display on your page.
It's that easy!
, equipment