ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
Ever wonder who decides when a product should be recalled? Or what happens if a company refuses?
This week, for instance, Ford Motor Co. announced a recall of about 92,000 of its 1996 Taurus, Mercury Sable, Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar vehicles. The Taurus and Sable models are being recalled because of an electrical switch that may have been damaged during production. The T-Birds and Cougars may have heater-defroster problems.
Auto recalls and safety issues have been regulated since the 1960s by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which periodically tests vehicles and operates a consumer information hot line. The agency also relies on car companies to report problems.
"There's no magic flag that pops up when a car has a defect," says Jim Hurd, a NHTSA spokesman. "Mostly, the manufacturers know by now what a safety defect is under the law."
Auto companies are supposed to notify the NHTSA within five days of discovering a potential hazard. Once a problem is identified, the agency and the manufacturer work together, and almost all recalls are done voluntarily by the auto company. Repairs are generally done by local dealers, and manufacturers pay the costs. If, however, a car maker balks at a voluntary recall, the safety agency can order one.
The NHTSA has had to argue recall cases in court only eight times in the agency's history, Hurd says, and it has won all but one of them. But the agency may have another case on its hands soon: Chrysler Corp. recently announced it will contest an NHTSA finding that the rear seat belts in several 1995 models failed strength tests.
If you have a question about the safety of milk, makeup or medicine, your best bet is to call the Food and Drug Administration. Manufacturers don't usually have to be forced to recall a defective product, says Brad Stone, an FDA spokesman.
"Contrary to popular understanding, most recalls are done on a voluntary basis," Stone says.
There are three levels of FDA recalls:
The product has the potential to cause serious injury or death.
The product may cause temporary or medically reversible health problems.
The product is mislabeled, but it isn't likely to cause health problems.
In the case of a class one recall, the FDA works with the manufacturer to make sure consumers are notified through the media. If the company doesn't issue a press release, the FDA will.
"More often than not," Stone says, "the company is very willing to issue that kind of publicity."
If the manufacturer refuses to issue a voluntary recall, the FDA can take the company to court. If the product is potentially hazardous, however, the FDA has the authority, under the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938, to remove the product from store shelves.
FDA recalls last year numbered "in the hundreds," Stone says.
Just about everything else you might buy falls under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, created in 1972 by the Consumer Product Safety Act. The CPSC oversees some 15,000 types of consumer products, ranging from coffee makers to fireworks.
For a product to be recalled, either it must violate some existing standard - this would cover toys with small parts, for instance - or it must have some defect that creates the risk of injury but is not yet covered by a standard.
Over the last year, recalled items included swimming pool clamps with sharp edges, electric juicers that could crack during operation and pacifiers that could come apart and choke children.
"Not everything we hear about leads to a recall," says Ken Giles, a CPSC spokesman. The commission sorts through 4,000 consumer complaints and thousands of emergency room reports and death certificates every year. It issued 350 recalls in 1995.
The CPSC doesn't investigate complaints of defective items that don't pose a health hazard. These calls are directed to state attorney general's offices and to local consumer offices.
A company is required to report to the CPSC within 24 hours of hearing about a potential hazard, Giles says. The agency then works with the company to issue a recall.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: For recall and safety information. color.by CNB