Seven-Year KID Checkup on SaferProducts.gov 1 Executive Summary In 2008 Congress passed and the President signed into law, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) which strengthened the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) through granting it new authority. One provision of the CPSIA created a publicly accessible database providing product safety information to consumers. Importantly, the database provided consumers and others the ability to report safety concerns about consumer products which has provided consumers with a new and important source of product safety information. The database also provides manufacturers with the opportunity to respond directly to a report before it is published and available to the public. This database, SaferProducts.gov, was launched in March of 2011. This report examines the effectiveness of SaferProducts.gov to date focusing on reports involving children 18 and younger, seeks to identify patterns in data, and provides recommendations for expanding the reach of this important safety tool. Here are the main findings of the report: - Ninety-four percent of reports involved an incident, injury or death while fewer than 2% were concerns about products with no incidents. - Almost half, 46%, of all reports involved an injury. - Overall, hazards causing bodily harm were most frequently reported (46%) followed distantly by choking at 14%. - Over half of all reports, 56%, were made for children under three. - Manufacturers were also more likely to comment if the report involved children under three. Forty-seven percent of those reports had manufacturer comments. - Nursery products and toys comprise 59% of reports. - Within the nursery category, 20% were for cribs or crib mattresses. - From 2012 to 2017 (first and last full years) reports to the database annually have dropped 62%. - Some manufacturers of children’s and toddler products appear repeatedly in the list of incident reports. Most frequently named companies include Fisher Price (mostly for the Rock’n’Play), Pampers (diapers), and Graco (range of nursery products). KID recommends: - Greater emphasis should be placed on marketing the database to consumers for filing reports and researching incidents. - All reports associated with recalls should link to the recall. This serves both the original poster and others who view it. - As many as 50% of reports are not included in the database for undisclosed reasons. The CPSC should review these to determine ways to get more included in the database. - SaferProducts.gov contains a lot of data; the CPSC should report annually to evaluate trends in harm posed by products and other reports on specific hazards more regularly.