Consumer Product Safety

Abstract

The vast array of products available to the American consumer presents a particularly perplexing challenge to the concept of human health and the environment. In a free market economy, there is a constant bombardment of hucksterism designed to convince the public to buy, use, and consume this never-ending parade of products. Because liability for harmful defects lies with the seller, people assume that such products, when used as intended, will do the consumer no harm. However, as much as we would like to believe that our lives in this consumer-oriented society can be risk free, we know that isn’t the case. In fact, all products carry some combination of risk and benefit, and our use or consumption of them becomes a very complex tradeoff.