Updated: Jul. 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Caresse JackmanA judge determined that the Trump administration's firing of three commissioners for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission was unlawful and ordered their immediate reinstatement.
Updated: May 9, 2025 at 4:19 PM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Caresse JackmanThe three Democrats who serve on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced they were fired by President Donald Trump but say he has no authority to do so.
Updated: Feb. 4, 2025 at 12:11 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff and Jamie GreyWhen a new toy or baby invention hits the market, most parents assume those products have undergone rigorous safety testing. Our investigators found this isn't always the case.
Updated: Dec. 20, 2024 at 5:09 PM CST|By Jamie Grey, Jill Riepenhoff, Lee Zurik, Scotty Smith and Owen HornsteinWhen a new type of toy or baby invention hits the market, most parents assume those products have undergone rigorous safety testing.
Updated: Sep. 12, 2024 at 10:14 AM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee ZurikParents, consumer advocates, pediatricians and others are sounding alarms about a baby product named in death reports: weighted infant sleepwear.
Updated: Apr. 19, 2024 at 3:01 PM CDT|By InvestigateTV StaffIn this InvestigateTV special, our team of journalists discusses how they investigated the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s role in informing the public about potentially dangerous products and how a law often prevents the agency from releasing information or issuing recalls without the consent of product makers.
Updated: Apr. 8, 2024 at 3:25 PM CDT|By Jamie Grey, Jill Riepenhoff and Lee ZurikRecalls of dangerous consumer products can sometimes take months if not years. But even after a recall, similar-looking products remain on the market. InvestigateTV examined toys that had been recalled and similar-looking products that weren't.
Updated: Jan. 29, 2024 at 1:48 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee ZurikThousands of children have been injured by ingesting water beads - tiny specks about the size of a cookie sprinkle that expand 100 times their size when exposed to water.
Updated: Aug. 28, 2023 at 2:04 PM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey, Lee Zurik, Austin Hedgcoth and Conner HendricksEvery year, the CPSC finds thousands of everyday household products for sale online or arriving at shipping ports that fail to meet federal safety standards. It is illegal to sell products in the U.S. that have been banned, recalled or failed to meet federal safety standards.
Updated: Jul. 31, 2023 at 2:09 PM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee ZurikAn InvestigateTV analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission data shows that since 2000, the agency has had to re-announce the recall of at least 46 products because the original alert did not reach the ears of consumers and, in many cases, continued to cause harm.
Updated: Feb. 9, 2023 at 5:24 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff and Caresse JackmanDespite its best efforts to safeguard consumers from dangerous household items, a report from a non-profit consumer group found the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is hamstrung, in large part, by Congress.
Updated: Jan. 23, 2023 at 3:16 PM CST|By Rachel DePompa and Daniela MolinaConsumer investigative reporter Rachel DePompa explains how to check for product complaints and recalls before you buy.
Updated: Jan. 23, 2023 at 2:45 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff, Lee Zurik and Conner HendricksMore than two decades ago, the death of a toddler in a recalled portable crib prompted Congress to pass a new consumer protection law. Yet today, children still are dying in unsafe products, recalls remain largely ineffective at ridding homes of dangerous products, and the CPSC website that was supposed to help creates a false sense of security, an InvestigateTV analysis of federal records shows.
Updated: Nov. 14, 2022 at 11:13 AM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee ZurikWhen a company learns a product it sells could be defective and dangerous, it has 24 hours to let the federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission know about it. But it could take months or years for the public to find out about the company’s possible concerns, if they even come to light at all. InvestigateTV has been battling CPSC and companies to disclose information about the products companies have sounded the alarm on – an alarm that remains relatively silent.
Updated: Aug. 15, 2022 at 4:19 PM CDT|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee ZurikAfter the deaths of 13 children over the last 12 years, this summer, Fisher-Price and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned parents not to let their children sleep in certain rockers the company has made since the 1990s. Now, InvestigateTV has discovered that during a 2021 Congressional hearing, the company dodged questions about whether it currently had products on the market linked to children’s deaths.
Updated: Jun. 2, 2022 at 1:47 PM CDT|By Jill RiepenhoffSafe Sleep for Babies Act will save lives by removing two dangerous baby sleeping products from the U.S. market.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:23 PM CST|By Rachel DePompa and Daniela MolinaThere are two websites you can use to find out whether something you just bought, or have owned for years, has either been recalled or reported as potentially dangerous.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:20 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff and Jon DeckerConsumer advocates say the time is long past due to lift the cloak of secrecy at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The issue rests with a provision in the Consumer Product Safety Act, known as Section 6(b), which requires the agency to receive approval from manufacturers before releasing any information about a specific product.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:18 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff, Lee Zurik and Jamie GreyIt takes years for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to remove dangerous products from the market because of its cumbersome rule-making process and ineffective recalls that don’t incentivize consumers to return or destroy dangerous items.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:09 PM CST|By Jill Riepenhoff and Lee ZurikThe federal agency created to watchdog consumer products - from crock pots to xylophones - is muzzled by its governing law, which gives all the power to manufacturers, including those with dangerous toys, appliances and other items on the market. The Fisher-Price Rock N Play – an inclined sleep product that defied the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for safe infant sleeping – exposed all that is wrong with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.