Illinois Attorney General Releases Safe Shopping Guide for Holidays to Warn of Dangerous Toys

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has released her annual Safe Shopping Guide as a means to warn consumers of dangerous toys and other products that have been shown to pose safety hazards to children.  This is a very informative guide and a great public service from Madigan’s office.  The guide identifies 91 different products that were marketed and sold for use by children and subsequently recalled due to safety problems.  A “recall” is where a manufacturer or retailer of a product, either voluntarily or at the direction of a safety regulatory agency, requests that consumers return a product that has been determined unsafe.  The manufacturer or retailer will either replace the product with a new one that has remedied the safety concern or in some cases the consumer is simply refunded their money.  Unfortunately, not all retailers are diligent in pulling all recalled products from their shelves, and many second hand vendors, such as re-sale shops or individual sellers on e-bay, are completely unaware that the product they are selling has been determined to be dangerous and recalled.  Madigan also recommends that parents use the guide to survey products and toys they may already have in their home to be sure that there they are not unknowingly keeping a recalled product.  Again, this is great resource for safety information related to toys and other products that can harm children and hopefully will be used by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and everyone in between over the holiday shopping season.