Testing your recall: 'One stop shops' help keep up with recalls and safety issues

NEW YORK -- These full-blast headlines read loud and clear. "Children's metal jewelry recalled due to risk of lead exposure" or "Children's full-zip hooded sweatshirts with drawstrings recalled for strangulation hazard."

As you're about to pick up this year's holiday gifts for your little loved ones, such headlines give you pause. As do the many others just like them.

You're beginning to wonder if everything made in China has some safety issue. How do you keep track? How do you figure out which issues are important? Which ones affect you? Which recalls do you act on if you're already one of the proud owners of the item?

Or, which manufacturers do you avoid, because they have more than their share of quality problems?

Wouldn't it be nice to spend 15 minutes (or less) once in a while to find out what products might spell jeopardy, from one or two well-organized Web sites, or even a customized feed?

Sighting recall Web sites

Turns out there are handy portals to help you keep pace with the news, the best of which are operated by the Federal government:

• Recalls.gov. This is a cross-organizational government-sponsored site capturing recalls issued by six participating regulatory agencies. Those agencies include the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the FDA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the EPA, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, and, for you boat owners, the U.S. Coast Guard. The handy "recent recalls" page gives recall headlines for each agency and provides links to more detail from each agency for recalls and other safety notices. You can sign up for email updates from CPSC, FDA, and the EPA. Visit the site.
• Consumer Product Safety Commission Recall Announcements and Product Safety Alerts page. The well-organized site allows you to search some 4,000 recalls and recall alerts specifically for consumer products. You can search by product category, like toys, household products, or sports and recreation products. You can also search by date, company or even a type of hazard. You can bookmark the page or subscribe to an RSS feed offered by the agency. Check the site.
• Consumer Reports. Not surprisingly, Consumer Reports offers its own recall and product safety information page. For the latest headlines and information they defer to recalls.gov, but you can also sign up for email newsletters on health, safety or auto issues. And you can also report your own product experiences and tips as an early warning for safety agencies and other consumers. Visit the site.

A better investor too?

OK, recall notices are obviously designed for consumers to know what products to act on and, more broadly, what products to buy or not.

But -- think about it -- recall and safety issues can be good investing information too. Are certain companies prone to the sorts of quality problems that end up in recalls?

Moreover, are companies involved in the recall process being up front and helpful, or evasive and difficult? Are they making it easy to execute the recall? Are they taking responsibility?

As good value investors know, good management teams handle bad news well, and recall notices can add to your good or bad feelings about a company and its management team.

As an investor or as a consumer, it's worth 15 minutes to check out the latest product-quality "glitches" every now and then, especially as you enter gift-giving season. It's good to know what hazards lurk behind the pretty packaging.