Re-Calls !

It is a sad fact of life that when a danger is discovered in a product that has been sold in Australia the usual remedy is to advertise a re-call to remove the danger - but the onus for taking that action rests entirely on whoever has the faulty item.   The vast majority of re-calls are ignored and at any time there are dangerous goods capable of inflicting injury or death still being used in the community.

A Samsung washing machine is just one item on that growing list. This faulty model achieved sales of 62,285 machines in New South Wales and when it was discovered that they were prone to catching fire a re-call went into effect in 2013.   Two years later, just 41% of these machines have been repaired and this week there was another house fire likely to have been caused by the unfixed fault.

Some faults are like a ticking time bomb.  Back in 2010-13 Infinity branded electrical cable was widely sold in New South Wales and it was later discovered that the insulation used was below the required Australian standard.   Anyone who had electrical wiring done in their home during that period would be wise to inspect the cabling and look for "Infinity " stamped on it's outer cover, because in a few months time it will become brittle and capable of causing fires and electrocution.

Now we have a faulty air bag installed in a growing number of vehicle brands.  If moisture penetrates the inner mechanism this safety device can become a shower of shrapnel into the face of the driver when a crash deploys the air bag - and already it has caused some deaths.   It is estimated that fifty-three million cars worldwide are fitted with bags that contain this fault - and replacing them will be a lengthy process.

Unfortunately there is little uniformity in how re-calls are handled.  We recently had a health scare when imported frozen berries were found to be contaminated and could infect users with a potentially fatal disease if eaten.   That made a warning the big item on the national television news and it would be most unlikely that many people would be unaware of the danger.

It is more likely that notice of a re-call will take the form of a small advertisement in national newspapers.  Not everybody still reads newspapers these days and certainly many to whom English is a second language would be likely to miss this means of issueing a warning.   The law requirement on re-calls differs from state to state, but generally it seems that placing a notice in newspapers satisfies the legal requirement.

Perhaps it is time to grade defaults by a scale with re-call requirements becoming more onerous  at the higher degrees of risk.  It would be difficult to apply a common action formulae because of the varied nature of distribution, but each individual high risk case would be evaluated on it's merits - and an appropriate course of action decreed.

That raises the cost question.  Again, it would be reasonable to require the manufacturer of a faulty product to contribute to both  advertising that a dangerous fault exists - and to the remedial action.  Having to pickup the tab for a re-call is a strong incentive for design and testing to eliminate future dangers.  It seems that the present regime in place to handle re-calls falls far short of the mark !

For instance, it is highly likely that the name and address of buyers of those Samsung washing machines are contained in the records of electrical stores, and in this computer age they could quickly be collated.  It would not be unreasonable to require an individual letter to each owner - and a followup if the re-call had not been actioned after a period of grace.

Tracking that Infinity cable would pose a very different problem.  It was sold widely and the customers would include both electricians and do-it-yourself handy folk. Pin pointing each individual job would be an impossibility and it would be better handled by regular announcements of the growing danger as the cable ages - and the use of social media to spread the message widely.  In such cases, good relations with the media would be helpful in achieving the desired objective.

Reducing public risk certainly involves the matter of costs.  When an official re-call is sanctioned the action required in compliance with that re-call should fall on the manufacturer concerned.