Government Agencies that do Product Recall

Product recall, even though avoidable, happens all around the world. Sometimes the manufacturer recalls the product and some times government agencies which are dedicated toward maintaining the quality and the safety of products and the consumer, recalls the products. In the United States there are many organizations dedicated towards this task. Some of them are the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Cost Guard and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

The FDA or the Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency which is responsible for maintaining the standards of food, drugs, biological products, medicine, cosmetics and electronic appliances and products. The FDA checks if the food that are in the market are safe, sanitary and up to standard. Medicine, medical devices and biological products need to be safe, effective and as risk free as possible. Radiation emitting electronic products should be up to the required standards and safe for public use.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission or the CPSC is in charge of protecting the public from risk, injury or death caused by consumer products. There are over fifteen thousand products which are listed under the care of the organization. The CPSC has to deal with property damage and personal injuries or death due to faulty products. These products could cause fires, electrical shocks and medical hazards. It is not easy to keep an eye on all the products that can cause harm, but the CPSC is doing a pretty good job at it.

The mission of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is to “Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle related crashes” (http://www.nhtsa.gov, 22/09/2008). As the mission states, the main objective of the NHTSA is to reduce injuries on the road. It is the job of the NHTSA to try and prevent vehicle related crashes by upgrading the standards of roads, bridges, junctions, intersections and so on. The NHTSA tries to educate the public on motor safety and to reduce vehicle based casualties.

The Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA has dedicated itself from the year 1970 to protect human health and the environment from harm. There are many ways in which human health and the environment can come to harm. It is up to the EPA to put up regulations to minimize environmental pollution, which will cause human health issues.

These are some of the government agencies that try to keep the consumer safe from faulty products. All these agencies have the right to recall goods provided that they have cause to think that the product is faulty and might and will cause harm to property and human life. These agencies work with each other to make sure that all products that are produced are up to standard and will cause little or no harm to property, the environment or human life.