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Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

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Consumer Protection

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Consumer Alerts, Product Safety, and Recalls

When it comes to dangerous consumer products, our children are particularly vulnerable. Each year, children die from injuries associated with toys and nursery products, such as infant carriers and cribs.

To ensure the safety of our children and families, the Illinois Attorney General enforces the Children's Product Safety Act. This Illinois law requires manufacturers and retailers to provide notice to consumers when products intended for children have been deemed unsafe.

Product Safety Recalls

The public usually becomes aware of dangerous children's products, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federal agency, investigates and issues a recall. Unfortunately, by the time a recall is issued, dangerous products are already on store shelves and in consumers' homes. To protect consumers from these unsafe products, the Illinois Attorney General, pursuant to the Children's Product Safety Act, requires that Illinois retailers remove dangerous products from store shelves and post recall notices in prominent locations.

While these measures help keep dangerous products out of consumers' hands, they are not infallible. For this reason, we strongly encourage parents and caregivers to sign up for e-mail notification of new recalls issued by the CPSC at www.cpsc.gov. We also encourage you to use the CPSC website to check for recalled items you may already have in your home.

Every year during the holiday season, the Attorney General's Office issues an annual Safe Shopping Guide that highlights hazardous toys, children’s products and household items that have been recalled over the past year to help Illinois families ensure a safe shopping season.

The Attorney General's Safe Shopping Guide includes detailed descriptions and photographs of children’s products that were recalled – from popular children’s toys and games, to children’s furniture, cribs and strollers. This easy-to-use resource can help families avoid recalled products on the second-hand market and items that may already be in their homes.

The Attorney General's Office has issued the Safe Shopping Guide every year since 2007, when a startling 44 million units of children’s products were recalled. Items purchased second-hand or from resale markets should also be carefully considered. Learn more about previously recalled children’s products below.

Archive of Safe Shopping Guides

Additional Household Hazards for Children

There are risks to children that may not be visible but can still cause harm such as the metals lead and cadmium that may be in products that children use or are around.

The dangers of lead poisoning are very real. Most harmful to children ages six and younger, lead poisoning can cause irreversible neurological damage, intelligence loss, attention disorders, and behavioral and other developmental problems.

The Cadmium-Safe Kids Act was passed in Illinois in 2010 to limit the amount of the toxic metal in children’s jewelry after high levels of Cadmium were discovered in these products.

Additionally, exposure to high levels of Cadmium has been proven especially dangerous to children because they are still growing and developing and thus more vulnerable to the effects of this harmful toxin. The Act limits the exposure children have to this metal to better protect their health and their environment. The Attorney General’s Office is responsible for ensuring compliance with this important public safety measure.

Online and Downloadable Resources