Hamburger Recall

“What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?"
- Martin Luther King, Jr

I'm dismayed by the number of recalls I see for unsafe products and food. The latest to catch my eye is tons of hamburger meat processed in Pennsylvania. Consumerist.com has the details:

A few tons of ground beef from a meat processor in Pennsylvania have been recalled over fear of possible E. coli contamination. As of early Monday morning, the only retail outlets identified as possibly having received the ground beef were BJ's Wholesale clubs in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.

Since the recalled beef has been repackaged and rebranded it will be tricky to identify. Hopefully the repackaging included the "use/freeze by" date of "07/01/10," and the product code "W69032." Although the use by date has passed, the USDA is concerned that some customers may still have the tainted meat sitting in their freezer.

Bottom Line

See the Consumerist article for a list of stores impacted.

Cars out of control

“Life's golden age is when the kids are too old to need baby-sitters and too young to borrow the family car”

You may have read recently that Toyota will recall nearly 4 million vehicles because the accelerator pedal can become stuck on the floor mat while driving. This killed a family of four and their tragedy was captured on a 9-1-1 call before they impacted a wall at 120 mph. The affected cars are:

2005 - 2010 Toyota Avalon
2007 - 2010 Toyota Camry
2004 - 2009 Toyota Prius
2005 - 2010 Toyota Tacoma
2007 - 2010 Toyota Tundra
2007 - 2010 Lexus ES350
2006 - 2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350

If you own one of these cars, immediately remove the driver-side floor mat and contact your dealer.

Because of this recall, Consumer Reports decided to look at the problem of stuck accelerators. What can you do?

They tested two cars, Mercedes-Benz E350 and Volkswagen Jetta Wagon, with German “smart-throttle” technology. These cars disable the gas flow when the brake is depressed. “Smart-throttle” cars have no problem stopping even with the gas pedal on the floor.

The next two cars they tested were not so lucky, Toyota Venza and Chevrolet HHR. Like most cars, the brake pedal does not stop the gas so the engine is fighting as you try to brake. With struggle and strength they managed to slow the cars from 60mph to 10mph at which point the brake pads were worn down and would not slow the car any further.

Bottom Line

The conclusion of the Consumer Reports for a stuck accelerator is to shift your car into neutral. The engine will rev like crazy but the power won’t go to the wheels and you can brake safely. Shifting to neutral is quite easy. A few weeks ago my wife accidentally hit the gearshift pushing it to neutral while I was driving and it took me a moment to figure out why the car would not accelerate.

Consumer Reports does NOT recommend turning off the car while driving with a stuck accelerator. Yes this will stop the runaway engine but it will also stop your power steering and power brakes. I found this out the hard way years ago when I tried to move my parked car a few feet. It was pointing downhill so I figured, just shift to neutral and coast – no need to turn the car on. The coasting part worked well but stopping – no so great. Without power the power brakes required a LOT of physical strength. I was pushing hard but couldn’t stop before bumping into the car in front of me.

Garage Sale Crimes

“Put your hands in the air and step away from the Easy-Bake Oven” - me

The new federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act makes it a crime to resell toys and other products for children that have been recalled by its manufacturer. The Act was signed into law last year over concern of lead in Chinese made toys in 2007. According to McClatchy News, “The crackdown affects sellers ranging from major thrift-store operators such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army to everyday Americans cleaning out their attics for yard sales, church bazaars or — increasingly — digital hawking on eBay, Craigslist and other Web sites.”

An agency spokesperson said they would not be sending Strom Troopers to raid Tag Sales but would focus instead on the big web sites and used item resellers in a campaign called Resale Roundup. To kick off the new campaign, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has identified the top 11 recalls out of thousands it has on file.

Product............................................When recalled
Playskool Travel-Lite Play Yards (portable cribs)..March 10, 1993
Baby Trend Home and Roam.(portable cribs)..........Dec. 19, 1994
Evenflo Happy Camper Play Yards (portable cribs)...June 25, 1997
Baby Express Portable Cribs and Play Yards.........Feb. 28, 2001
Magnetix Magnetic Building Sets....................March 31, 2006
Polly Pocket dolls with magnets....................Nov. 21, 2006
Easy-Bake Ovens....................................July 19, 2007
Simplicity Drop Side Cribs.........................Sept. 21, 2007
Simplicity Bassinets...............................Aug. 27, 2008
Hill Sportswear hooded drawstring sweatshirts......Feb. 12, 2009
Evenflo Envision high chairs.......................April 2, 2009

Bottom Line

For more information see: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09299.html

Product Recalls

“I knew my mother had it in for me from a young age. My bath toys were an electric toaster and hair-dryer.” - Rodney Dangerfield

To get the latest news on product recalls, check out the Toy and Product Recall Finder on http://www.parents.com/. You can search by Product Name, Brand or Model Number. There is also a listing of the most recently announced recalls. This web site includes information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and other sources.

Bottom Line
For more information concerning recalls, visit the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. You can sign up for a recall newsletter at https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx.