The string of product-safety recalls involving lead-based paint seems like it has no end: Yesterday, Target Corp. announced yesterday it is pulling 350,000 Taiwanese-made kids’ gardening tools and chairs from store shelves, while RC2 Corp., makers of Thomas & Friends railroad toys, said it would recall additional products from the market, on top of the 1.5 million lead-tainted items it was forced to pull in June.
Credit Stanford business school professor Jeffrey Pfeffer with being first to pinpoint the root causes of the problem: In a recent “Human Factor” column for Business 2.0 — long before RC2 news broke — Pfeffer argues that breakdowns in quality-control and safety tie into two disturbing trends. The first is the erosion of the government agencies that once served as an effective safety net: Between 1998 and 2004, he reports, the staff of the federal agencies charged with overseeing food safety, occupational safety and health, and mine safety “all declined in size.” The second, he says, is the ongoing effort of tort-reform advocates to limit the scope and ability of plaintiffs to seek redress through product-liability suits.
Neither trend is likely to turn around anytime soon. So what’s the solution, especially for companies who manufacture overseas? Start beefing up those legal teams. “True, regulatory agencies cost billions, and so does our legal system,” writes Pfeffer. “But I would argue it’s a pretty good deal — simply a necessary cost of running an economy in which people rely on the promises and products of strangers.”
