We’re all pretty lucky to live in 2016, although we may not always see it. Today, the food on our table, the cars we drive, and the toys our children play with are all put through rigorous health and safety testing to minimize the chances of injury, illness or death. Although governments around the world are always looking for ways to make sure consumer products are as safe as possible, there are still things which have slipped through the net, even in the past couple of decades. Although the chances of you being affected by a faulty product are relatively low, it pays to know a bit about the major product recalls that have happened in the past. Here are a few of the most terrifying in history.
Infantino Baby Slings
Approximately 1million baby slings released by Infantino and Wendy Bellissimo were recalled in March 2010, after being linked to three infant deaths. This followed a warning issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission that sling-style baby carriers posed a significant risk of suffocation, especially for infants under 4 months of age. If the fabric of these slings, designed to hold the baby to a parent’s chest, was pressed against a baby’s nose and mouth, it could suffocate them within minutes. In the aftermath, the Consumer Product Safety Commission investigated at least 14 deaths since 1990 to see if they were associated with the slings.
Toyota’s Faulty Gas Pedals
(Pixabay)
Although many of us associate the name “Toyota” with safety and reliability, this was a recall that really stood out. A few years ago, this massive Japanese auto manufacturer was forced to recall 4.1million cars sold in the US and Europe, due to gas pedals which occasionally became stuck at one elevation, causing people to accelerate when they didn’t want to. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how dangerous this kind of flaw can be! This came mere months after another recall, when 5.3million vehicles were recalled due to poorly-fitted floor mats, which were believed to trap pedals in one position. Between the two recalls, Toyota has recalled 9 million cars due to pedal-related faults. That’s close to the total number of vehicles which all car makers sold in the US in the course of 2009! This was investigated by a house committee, but no major negligence or other scandals were uncovered. Although the sheer scale of Toyota’s recalls is pretty staggering, the auto industry is no stranger to these scandals. At one time, Honda was forced to recall hundreds of thousands of its cars due to faulty window switches which were known to accidentally catch fire.
Cribs That Caused Infant Deaths
In the summer of 2009, over 400,000 drop-side cribs produced by Simplicity were recalled, following the death of an 8-month-old child in Houston. The Chinese products came with a detachable side which could easily be broken, and create a gap between the side of the crib and the mattress, where infants could become trapped and suffocate on the fabric. The resulting wrongful death claim and scandal shook the nation, but it certainly wasn’t the first time that Simplicity ran into controversy over the cribs they produced. 600,000 of a similar, older model of crib were recalled in 2008 when two children became trapped in the same fashion and suffocated. Although the results of the company’s negligence were horrifically tragic, it had an upside in that it made regulations for baby products that much tighter.
The Bomb You Could Drive
The Ford Pinto became incredibly famous for how much of an ugly and unreliable car it was. However, these weren’t the only factors that might put someone off buying a Pinto. Ford did a pretty poor job of handling their safety pitfalls. Before the first Pintos were even released, there were various concerns hitting the media that the Pinto could blow up after one little bump to the rear end of the car. The poor positioning of the fuel tank meant that a severe enough crash could end in it being punctured, causing a fire and explosion. The higher-ups at Ford, cleverly, decided that it would be more cost-effective for them to settle any lawsuits that stemmed from this design flaw, rather than change the design and assure the safety of their customers. Various lawsuits and criminal charges were brought against the company. Remarkably, no one was prosecuted. However, the car company had to recall 1.5 million Pintos in the late 70s, and retro-fitted the fuel tank assembly with protective measures to prevent the car from bursting into flame. This, as you can imagine, didn’t salvage the car’s reputation. By 1981, the car was taken off the US auto market for good.
Dysfunctional Tire Treads
(Flickr)
Another shocking recall from the auto industry, this involved tires that failed to serve their basic function! In the year 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone recalled over 6million Firestone tires due to one of the most dangerous faults in the history of the automobile. These models had a tendency for failure which ended up resulting in 175 deaths and at least 700 injuries. The tire treads on more than one model of tire would peel off when worked at high speeds, causing blowouts, which meant rollovers for certain vehicles like the Ford Explorer. Although the fallout was certainly a formidable blow to Firestone, other tire manufacturers didn’t have a lot of time to gloat! Goodyear had its own technical difficulties later that year. Some of their light truck models had a recurring issue with tread separation. This was linked to over a hundred injuries and 15 confirmed deaths.
Downer Cattle Scandal
This makes the list for being the largest recall of meat in recorded history. In the late noughties, the Department of Agriculture initiated a recall for 143million pounds of beef after a slaughterhouse in California was found to be improperly butchering downer cattle. For those who don’t work in the agricultural industry, downer cattle are cows that are too feeble or sick to be walked to the slaughterhouse. By the time the recall got out, most of the meat at the center of the scandal had been consumed. It even covered cattle that had been slaughtered two years prior! Some thirty-seven million pounds of the downer meat was used in the National School Lunch Program. Fortunately, most of this was identified and removed before being eaten by any kids. Despite the massive scale of the distribution and the food safety concerns that come with downer meat, no illnesses or injuries were ever reported.
Smooth, Crunchy, or Contaminated?
(Wikimedia)
This recall was particularly worrying as it was carried by one of the most popular and common food products in the nation. After a salmonella outbreak infected hundreds of people and killed up to eight in the noughties, federal agencies were tasked with getting to the bottom of it. They were eventually able to trace the outbreak to peanuts which were being processed at the Peanut Corp. of America’s plant in Blakely, Georgia. What was discovered there was a food safety investigator’s worst nightmare. There was mold covering the walls and ceilings of food production areas, cockroaches and rodents infesting the plant, and ingredients which were in contact with food waste. As if this wasn’t enough, the Food and Drug Administration also found that the plant was allowing shipments to go ahead even in the knowledge that they were contaminated with salmonella. The result was one of the biggest recalls in food product history. Countless foods containing processed peanuts, from peanut butter to chocolate to sauces, were tracked down and public warnings issued. The Peanut Corp. of America denied the allegations, but declared bankruptcy soon after the investigation had completed. Since the scandal, federal investigations have been conducted and one executive from the company was sentenced to 28 years.
The Tragedy of Tylenol
One of the biggest scandals in the history of North American pharmaceuticals, this put a stigma on the name “Tylenol” which never really went away. In 1982, seven people, all in the Chicago area, died after taking extra-strength Tylenol which was laced with potassium cyanide. There’s no doubt now that this was an intentional, malicious crime. Unfortunately, the culprit was never brought to justice. When the cause of the deaths became clear it sparked a panic through the whole city. Police cruised the streets for several days, broadcasting and distributing warnings that advised people to discard the product. What’s even more terrifying about the Tylenol poisoning is that it inspired a string of copycat killers. In the months after, 270 different incidents of dangerous product-tampering were uncovered. Halloween candy with pins in them were found in Long Island, and Excedrin laced with mercuric chloride was uncovered in Colorado, among other malicious incidents. Johnson and Johnson nearly went bankrupt paying for a nationwide recall of Tylenol. Though tragic, this poisoning opened the authorities’ eyes to a glaring flaw in the pharmaceuticals trade. Since then, all over-the-counter drugs have been required to come with tamper-proof seals on the lids. Though serial poisonings still occur, the modern drug market is believed to be fairly airtight.
