Recall Overload May Put Public At Risk

U.S. regulators, retailers, and manufacturers are growing increasingly concerned that a surge in the number of products being recalled is resulting in "fatigue" by the public — increasing the chance that consumers could ignore or miss a recall that could ultimately endanger their health. Consumers last year were deluged with 2,363 recalls, or about 6.5 recalls each day, covering consumer products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and food, according to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recalls announced mark a nearly fourteen percent increase from 2,081 in 2010 and compare to about 1,460 in 2007.

Experts say the increase is the result of a combination of greater oversight by regulators, better testing procedures, and the use of social media where consumers can quickly point out and discuss problems with other people.

"We’re experiencing recall fatigue in my mind at the consumer level and also perhaps at the business level, and we all have to worry about that," said Mike Rozembajgier, Vice President of Recalls for Stericycle ExpertRecall, an Indianapolis-based firm which has provided advice and helped major U.S. companies including Merck, General Electric, and Wendy’s carry out recalls. "We have this growing concern for safety, but with there being so many recalls going on, (is the public) paying attention to them and responding to them in a manner that is necessary for the recalls to be handled effectively?" he said.

Iowa Consumer Protection Director Bill Brauch sees "recall fatigue" as a mixed bag. Some recalls — such as those for automobile parts, food, and medication — tend to get much wider exposure in the news media and elsewhere, but other recalls fall into the void.

"We afford the highest priority to recalls that have a public safety concern," said Brauch, who works for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. "If it’s a wire in your toaster, it gets less exposure."

Automobile manufacturers, for example, are required to contact the last known owner of a vehicle in the event of a recall. However, with smaller purchases, it is more difficult for the manufacturers to reach the consumer directly. Most recalls do not receive news media coverage unless they have a broad effect or pose a public safety threat, Brauch said.

Retailers and government regulators are increasingly struggling to reach people who may not know about a recall, or choose to ignore it despite the potential dangers. A 2009 study conducted by Rutgers found twelve percent of Americans ate food they knew had been recalled and forty percent admitted never having looked for recalled products in their homes.

Increasingly, retailers and government agencies are expanding the methods they use to communicate with the public — from Twitter and Facebook to more traditional methods such as phone calls and postings within their stores. But the same methods that prove successful in reaching one customer could just as easily be ignored by another.

"Many companies are being criticized not because they are not doing the right thing but because they are taking too long," said Sophie Ann Terrisse, Chief Executive of STC Associates, a brand-management firm. She said some firms fail to estimate the work needed to conduct a recall and quickly become overwhelmed, leading to slow responses or poor customer service from representatives who don’t have the time or know-how to respond properly. "Things can get out of hand very quickly and it’s hard to recover from that" for the brand and the company’s core audience, said Terrisse.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack downplayed the number of recalls that are announced, considering the number of products that are produced, items that are sold and meals consumed each day. "I think people want to know and need to know and have a right to know if there is a problem with a particular product," said Vilsack. "We’re going to look at ways in which we constantly improve how we communicate, but we’re not going to stop communicating."

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