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In the run-up to this Christmas, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission orchestrated not one, but two recalls of faulty high-tech cross-bows.
So, if any of you had a cross-bow stocking stuffer (or perhaps you gave one to your favorite, albeit moody and somewhat withdrawn, adolescent acquaintance), you already may have taken note of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announcement on December 8 of the voluntary recall of one weapon in which “The sensor that senses whether an arrow is properly loaded can malfunction, which can cause the crossbow to fire unexpectedly, posing an injury hazard to the user or bystander." Less than two weeks later, on December 20, a second, additional product was recalled because “The crossbow can fire unexpectedly when the safety is engaged, posing an injury hazard to the user or bystander.”
Why a Yuletide mini-crossbow recall boom? Despite the inarguable fact that Katniss Everdeen is a long-bower who eschews the crossbow, clever marketers nonetheless may be trying to ride the tails of a Mockingjay-inspired archery craze to flog the more advanced crossbow. Anyway, it may not be as pure a weapon, but has been featured in its own futuristic role as a groovy dispatcher of the walking-dead, not to mention a major presence in Westeros.
Needless to say, some of the CSPC’s Christmas vigilance this year was devoted to far homier items, such as announcing a December 15 voluntary recall of “Christmas Wishes” tins due to a choking and button battery ingestion hazard (the tin’s music sound chip mechanism could separate and expose button batteries, posing a potential hazard children). And then there was the ever-so-cute chicken toy recalled two days before that (the toy contained small eggs and the chicken could break into small plastic pieces, both posing a choking hazard to children). X’d off the adult list on December 7 was a “Red Wine Crush Gift Box” because “Mold can be present on the boxes, posing a risk of respiratory or other infections in individuals with compromised immune systems, damaged lungs or an allergy to mold.” Finally, in a nod to a seasonal ecumenical spirit, was the follow-up December recall by Target (they first announced the recall after marketing the items earlier in the year) of an acrylic menorah that apparently could melt when its candles were burned, thus posing a fire hazard. On that one, someone in the design-marketing department may not have been too familiar with the basics of the holiday in question.
Christmas is the best-time-of-the-year for the CPSC. Typically, they kick off the season with a yearly press release touting the progress that they have been making in keeping hazards off the shelves so that they never find their way under or even more so on the tree. (Faulty lights seem to be a mainstay recallable item.) This year’s November press release reassured, “Safer Together: CPSC and CBP Collaborate to Keep Unsafe Toys Off Store Shelves.” (PS: The initials CBP stand for Customs and Border Patrol.)
But let’s also give a cheer for CPSC recalls, Christmas past: the Jingle Bell Ornament laceration hazard, 2015 (140 reports of consumers who received finger cuts while handling the ornaments, including four consumers who required stitches); the Christmas light fire and shock hazard, 2014; the “100 musical lights” snafu (the light string could overheat and catch fire, posing a fire and shock hazards to consumers) and the pre-lit Christmas trees (fire, burn and shock hazards), both 2013; and then, going into the memory vault, the 2007 snowman candle that could tip over and the exterior coating on both candles that could ignite; and a real Christmas classic, the 2008 toy wooden block and train sets recalled by Christmas Tree Shops due to violation of lead paint standard. (First Learning Company Ltd., of Hong Kong whose “Big Wooden Blocks” contained 30 or 60 colorful block pieces in 11 geometric shapes and the “Jumbo Wooden Train Set” with 70 wooden pieces including trees, stop and railroad crossing signs, a red wooden engine and green train cars.
But perhaps my personal favorite is the 2001 recall of 28,000 “Galileo Weather Thermometers” by Nantucket Distributing Co. Inc., of South Yarmouth, Mass. (also closely linked to Christmas Tree Shops). The thermometers were made of cylinder-shaped glass. Inside the cylinder were floating small glass spheres filled with various colors of liquid and attached to each sphere, a metal disk with different temperatures embossed on both sides. The spheres floated up and down within the cylinder to identify a temperature based on their position within the cylinder. A small gold sticker on the bottom said "Made in China." The “problem” was that thermometers contained a liquid that is a flammable and hazardous substance that could be harmful or fatal if swallowed. (Per the CPSC, one man suffered burns to his hands when the thermometer broke near a stove and ignited his clothing and another suffered smoke inhalation when extinguishing a fire caused by candles igniting a broken thermometer.)
Of course, the CPSC also does recalls off-season. For example, its April 2016 recall of Ivanka Trump scarves due to a violation of Federal Flammability Standard. The New York Times reported that the scarves were manufactured in China and made of 100% rayon, so at least they weren’t fake fake silk (http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/06/ivanka-trumps-chinese-made-scarves-are-recalled/?_r=0). I am sure that the CSPC will continue to be a strong advocate to consumer protection, Christmas season and year round. That is, unless and until the Commission is scoped in the current anti-regulatory crosshairs.
