Looks like we missed CPSC Chairwoman Nancy Nord's speech last week at the National Press Club, the one where she criticized the media for its "near-hysteria" and "hoopla" over the record-setting number of product recalls in 2007. In fact, Nord explained, thanks in no small part to all the effective recalls, consumer products generally and toys specifically "are safer than they have ever been."

Oh, ARE they?

Consumer Reports takes issue with some of Nord's claims, but this example of how ineffective recall announcements are jumped out at me:

Last year's recall of one million Simplicity and Graco branded cribs for a design flaw that led to at least two deaths and seven infant entrapments. A month after the highly publicized recall, only about 45,000 customers had requested a repair kit for the crib. That is a pathetic response rate that proves more needs to be done to prevent recalls in the first place.