Turning recall notices into inspection check items

Every CPSC recall notice carries a hazard text that says what failed, in the regulator's own words. Across the 1,528 notices dated 5 January 2023 to 8 October 2026, the hazard words that appear most often are "injury" (689 notices), "death" (507), "burn" (381) and "fire" (317) — counted by this site from CPSC's recall data. Read the way such words are used, those phrases point at specific things to look for.

Where the wording comes from

Each notice in CPSC's recall data has a hazard field, and that text describes the failure in the regulator's words — which component gave way, which standard is cited, what injury can follow. The notice published on cpsc.gov is the authoritative text for any single recall; the data interface is the machine-readable form of the same notices. Where the hazard text is quoted below, it is quoted as the notice writes it.

Hazard words across the notices

Word	Notices (of 1,528)	Made in China (of 1,042)
choking	99	83
ingestion or swallowing	227	186
fire	317	201
burn	381	300
laceration	105	66
tip-over	91	75
entrapment	193	170
strangulation	21	16
suffocation	54	50
fall	228	139
electric shock or electrocution	50	43
lead (the metal)	34	32
crash	107	52
poisoning	133	77
drowning	33	27
entanglement	13	12
head injury	33	31
flammability standard	105	73
death	507	402
injury	689	476

A count here is the number of notices whose hazard text mentions the word, and it is a word count compiled by this site, not an official CPSC classification. One notice can contain several of these words, so the rows are not added up. "Made in China" means the notice lists a country of manufacture starting with China; Hong Kong and Taiwan are not counted as China, and a notice can name more than one country.

From hazard text to a check item

Take a few words and follow them through to what a check could be. The examples are individual notices quoted as they are.

Tip-over. Notice No. 27020, 8 October 2026, Romorgniz Six-Drawer Dressers: "The recalled dressers are unstable if they are not anchored to the wall, posing tip-over and entrapment hazards that can result in risks of serious injuries or death to children." That points to an on-site check: whether the anchor and the anti-tip hardware are present and fitted.

Laceration. Notice No. 26733, 3 September 2026, Loyoda Adult Portable Bed Rails: "The bed rails' push pins and push pin holes are incorrectly sized, posing a laceration hazard." Push pin sizing and hole sizing are things a person can look at and try during an inspection.

Fall. Notice No. 27014, 1 October 2026, Agrish Adult Portable Bed Rails, models 12014, AG-12011 and 12016: "The bed rails do not meet structural stability or retention strap requirements, posing a fall hazard." That points to checking the retention strap and the structural stability of the rail on site.

Ingestion or swallowing. Notice No. 27015, 8 October 2026, LED-light bike lock keys: "the button batteries can be accessed easily by children, posing an ingestion hazard. Additionally, the packaging and product do not have the warnings required under Reese's Law." Whether the required warnings are present is a look-at item; whether the product conforms to the standard named in the notice is a question for laboratory testing.

Flammability standard. Notice No. 26788, 24 September 2026, Kesyup-branded Mattresses: "The recalled mattresses violate the mandatory flammability standard for mattresses, posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire." This is a laboratory test, not something an inspector settles by looking.

Lead (the metal). Notice No. 26753, 10 September 2026, Lontcs Busy Board: "The toys' zipper contains levels of lead that exceed the standard set in the federal lead paint ban." Chemical content is measured in a laboratory.

Those explanations of what each word points to are general readings of the wording, not statements by CPSC.

Three ways to use the notices

You can add checks to the inspection instructions. Where a hazard text names a part, a fitting or a label, that item can go into the inspection scope as a look-at or try-it-on-site item, and where it names a chemical or a flammability failure, it can go into the list of items sent for laboratory testing.

You can put the failure into the critical class of the defect list. A defect that a notice describes as causing death or serious injury is a reasonable candidate for the critical class rather than the minor one, on the basis of what the hazard text says.

You can ask the supplier how the factory prevents the failure and which test reports it holds. A recall notice points at a test or a requirement; asking for the report behind it gives a starting point for the conversation.

Limits

An on-site inspection does not show that a product meets a safety regulation. Whether a product meets a rule is shown by testing to that rule. The counts above are numbers of notices, not numbers of products, not numbers of injuries, and not unit totals. The 2026 figures stop at 8 October 2026, so they are not a complete year.

Sources

• CPSC recall data interface (Recall web service), all recalls from 1 January 2023, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Checked 11 October 2026.

This page is an unofficial summary and is not affiliated with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission; the official notice text governs.