By MARY LANDRIEU

Each year, thousands of American consumers purchase products they believe are safe, but which are later found to be defective and recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Unfortunately, scores of people never get word of the recalls and continue using dangerous, defective items. Companies have no way to contact their customers directly, so they rely on public relations efforts. Often, these customers never get the word. In fact, most estimates place recall effectiveness rates at less than 20 percent. This is a tragedy waiting to happen, especially when it comes to children’s products.

That’s why I recently introduced the Product Safety Notification and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2002. This legislation will assist companies in keeping track of who buys their merchandise, enabling them to make recalls more effective. A similar system is already being used by auto dealers, and I believe it should be used for other products as well.

In the case of recalls involving automobiles, buyers are notified directly by mail. This system is safe, private and effective. However, that’s not the system in place for most other products. As it stands now, the Consumer Product Safety Commission determines whether a defective product was to blame for someone’s injury or death. If the experts there decided that the incident was caused by a defective product, the commission will almost always order a recall. But there is generally no way to contact buyers directly, since manufacturers often have no record of purchasers. So, many of the customers may well be unaware, and continue to use a defective product. The system can’t rely on whether someone happens to tune in to the six o’clock news one day.

Recalls of children’s products are of special concern. Each year, the CPSC announces the recall of hundreds of infant and children’s products, but less than 20 percent of the recalled items are ever returned to stores or to the companies that manufactured them. More than 1.7 million children younger than 5 have been harmed by dangerous products, and some of those were certainly from recalled products. The Product Safety Notification and Recall Effectiveness Act would require the CPSC to propose a standard requiring notification for consumers who buy juvenile products or electrical appliances using registration cards, Internet registration, or an alternate method.

Ensuring that parents are directly notified about dangerous products in their homes plugs a dangerous loophole in consumer recall methods. I’m proud of this legislation. I believe it will make our homes safer, and give consumers a higher level of confidence. Our public safety, and that of our children, is too important to rely on word of mouth.

MARY LANDRIEU represents Louisiana in the United States Senate.