Amy Miller

LANSING, Mich. – There’s a new way to alert the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the public, about products that could be dangerous. It’s a website just launched by the CPSC, “SaferProducts.gov,” where anyone can file a report or look up safety information about a product.

Inez Tenenbaum, the Consumer Product Safety Chairman, sees the new site as a benefit for consumers, manufacturers and for her agency, which may be able to identify product safety issues earlier.

“We can see emerging trends much quicker. We have been testing this website and out of the 1500 reports that came in from consumers, we only received 13 claims of inaccuracy from the manufacturers.”

The new website almost didn’t make it onto the Internet. Some Republican lawmakers wanted to cut its funding, saying there would be no way to prevent false or misleading reports, which could harm companies’ reputations. But Tenenbaum says there are filters built into the new website to prevent that.

“It’s the only federal website that allows manufacturers to have a secure portal as well. When a consumer files a report, we send that information to manufacturers, and they have 10 days in which to review it to let us know if it’s materially inaccurate or if it contains a trade secret.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration already has a similar public database for automotive complaints. The CPSC says reports filed this week on “SaferProducts.gov” will show up as part of the database in April.

For a look at the new site, go to www.saferproducts.gov