Group says children's product recalls are flawed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A consumer group says the federal government's handling of recalls of children's products is flawed -- leading to distribution of information that is often outdated or incorrect.

The group also complained Thursday that some products are not being recalled because federal regulators cannot determine the manufacturer.

The Consumer Federation of America filed a petition Thursday with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, seeking new recall regulations.

Mary Ellen Fise, general counsel of the Washington-based advocacy group, said she stumbled across the problem as she was setting up a Web site to give parents information about child safety.

Before listing recall telephone numbers from the CPSC's Web site, Fise's group called the numbers and found 108 of the 595 numbers checked to be not useful.

"Eighteen percent of the hot lines or phone lines listed have the wrong number, are disconnected, ring a fax machine, always ring busy or are answered by company personnel who don't know about the recall or tell us they're out of the repair parts," Fise told a news conference.

One number was answered by a recording that advertised telephone sex, Fise said.

Though the numbers were for recalls throughout the 1990s, 35 percent of the failures were for products recalled during the past five years.

"It is our belief the child safety recalls shouldn't go away as soon as the news story fades," Fise said.

CFA is also asking the CPSC to require the name, address, phone number or Web address on every product intended for children.

That would not only help parents report problems, it would help the agency determine what to recall. Fise cited two cases where children became entrapped in baby-changing tables that were never recalled because authorities were not able to determine who made them. The CFA is also asking that products intended for children be sold with safety registration cards, to be used by the manufacturer to contact the owner in the event of a recall.

Though the CFA is focusing on children's safety, "what we did today certainly would help on all types of consumer products," Fise said. Fise said information lines for recalled products should function indefinitely. "A baby crib may work for as much as 50 years," she said. Fise added that the CPSC's budget was slashed in the early 1980s and its ability to oversee recalls has been limited since then. Most recalls are voluntary, she said. "They bring few court cases a year because they don't have the resources."

Fise said the group's new Web site, www.safechild.net, makes available a free, non-commercial and confidential e-mail notification service detailing major child-safety product recalls and related child-safety tips. CFA is a non-profit, consumer-advocacy group founded in 1968.

A spokesman for the CPSC said it had not yet prepared a response.