I got this email this morning from Jim Guest, the president of Consumer Reports, which I had subscribed to so I could check out the best and safest equipment for Benjamin.

Dear Christine E***,

By now, you've probably heard the news about my decision to withdraw the infant car seat report featured on ConsumerReports.org and in the February issue of Consumer Reports magazine. I took this action when we discovered a mistake in our side-impact crash tests.

We always strive to be accurate and fair, and I regret this error. Going forward, I want to make sure that our actions are as thorough and transparent as possible so that we preserve your trust as we continue to test, inform, and protect consumers. To that end, I'm writing you and the millions of other Consumers Union members to tell you what I know about the situation and what we're doing about it.

Here's what I know so far: One of our tests was intended to simulate how infant car seats perform in a side-impact crash at 38 mph. That's the speed at which many new vehicles are tested in side crashes by the government's auto safety agency. But upon reevaluating our data, we believe our tests simulated crashes that were much more severe than that.

Some of the questions I've heard involve our use of an outside lab to conduct the crash tests. While the vast majority of product testing by Consumers Union occurs in our own labs, we sometimes use outside contractors that have special test equipment or other expertise that we don't. This enables us to inform you about the safety, reliability, and performance of important products that we couldn't otherwise test.

That said, we expect all our testing to meet the same high standards, and our own staff oversees all projects. The board of directors and I are appointing a panel of experts to review this incident and determine what went wrong.

We're also retesting the infant car seats featured in our article as thoroughly and quickly as possible, so that we can publish our findings and help parents who are making this important buying decision. I've directed that we suspend the article's Ratings and other recommendations regarding specific car-seat models until this retesting is completed. In any case, I again stress the importance of what we say in the article: Any child car seat is better than no seat at all.

For 71 years, the staff of Consumers Union has worked hard to earn the trust of members like you and to build the stellar reputation we have enjoyed. We test more than 3,000 products each year, and errors like this one are rare. I apologize on behalf of Consumers Union and I promise you we're working hard to ensure that such an error does not happen again.

Sincerely,

Jim Guest

I think it's great the CR sent an email to all of its subscribers, as well as made this issue public (I remember hearing a news story about it as well). The main reason I had joined was for the safety reports, and it's reassuring to know that if they screw up, they'll tell us about it. When I was reading the artical, I was expecting that the tests were not safe enough, but then I saw that the testing simulated crashes that were TOO severe. Of course, that would have given bad ratings to carseats that would have been just fine in your average crashes, but since I already went out and bought one of the carseats that they had rated in the top five, it makes me feel that much better - my seat is a super safe seat!

On a side note, for you parents out there, here's the list of product recalls. I had been wondering the other day if there was a website that has a listing of product recalls and there is.

CPSC Recall Announcements

It's a little scary when you look at the listing of what's been recalled - things that pose choking hazards, laceration hazards, lead poisoning hazards - don't they test these things before they get sold?

Name of Product: Reebok Heart-Shaped Charm Bracelets

Hazard: The recalled jewelry contains high levels of lead, posing a risk of lead poisoning and adverse health effects to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: Reebok has received a report of a death caused by lead poisoning of a 4-year-old child from Minneapolis, Minn. The child reportedly swallowed a piece from one of these bracelets.

Name of Product: Chicken Limbo Electronic Party Game

Hazard: The game’s two side poles do not fit into their bases properly making the game unstable. This can cause the game to completely fall apart if touched, hitting children playing the game as well as bystanders.

Incidents/Injuries: Milton Bradley has received 46 reports of the Chicken Limbo party game collapsing unexpectedly. This includes 23 reports of injuries including bumps, bruises, welts and red marks, four reports of cuts, one chipped tooth and one fractured foot.

Name of product: Crib Mobile Toys

Hazard: If batteries used in the mobile leak, the caustic liquid can seep out of the battery compartment, posing a risk of chemical burns to babies.

Ugh...at this rate, I'm just going to keep Benjamin in a box, with only a large sterilized plastic tupperware container for him to play with!

Posted by Yano at January 26, 2007 09:05 AM

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