Many of us have experienced health or safety issues after coming into contact with a consumer product, such as a toy, household product or sporting good. These issues can arise for many reasons: the product did not function properly, it broke suddenly or was not properly labeled with important information. Health Canada is encouraging Canadians to play a role in identifying hazards in consumer products and reporting problems as soon as possible to the manufacturer, the retailer or to Health Canada. By reporting hazardous products, you have the opportunity to protect others from injury by providing industry and Health Canada with the right information to take action as appropriate. In turn, the reporting of another consumer might just protect you from the hazards of an unsafe consumer product. Common hazards and concerns with consumer products might include a child’s toy that breaks and presents a choking, inhalation or ingestion hazard from small parts; electronics which may pose a risk of fire; sporting equipment which may not properly protect from injury; or household chemicals that are not appropriately packaged or labelled which may pose the risk of poisoning to children. Under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, which came into effect in June 2011, industry has an obligation to sell, import, manufacture or advertise consumer products which do not pose a danger to human health or safety. Industry also has an obligation to report to Health Canada when they become aware of an incident related to a product that they manufacture or sell. The Act provides Health Canada with stronger tools to investigate and take action when necessary to address health or safety hazards to Canadians from consumer products, which may include ordering the recall of products that do not comply with the law.
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