Those three little words

BACK AND FORTH Our engineers created a push-pull machine so they could measure the force needed with each vacuum to clean your home.

On the cover and on the bottom of most left-hand pages in Consumer Reports, three words appear: Expert, Independent, Nonprofit. Each of these sets the course for everything we do; together, they set us apart.

Expert. For many products, there’s an industry standard for testing. We rarely stop there. Our engineers--who are not just experienced, but persistent and ingenious--have built machines and devised tests that have us, for example, pounding treadmills with mechanical “feet” for hours at a time; opening and closing kitchen cabinets with a gusto that would amaze a sous chef; pushing and pulling vacuums for hours at a time to determine how much effort you’ll need to clean your house.

Testing air cleaners in our May 2005 report on ionizing air cleaners, our engineers went beyond the industry-standard, plastic-enclosed space. Ozone behaves differently depending on a room’s furnishings, so they repeated the tests in a real home and an open lab. They also measured the ability of these products to do their main job: remove small particles from the air. Meanwhile, our expert journalists found that air cleaners fall into a regulatory black hole, with no one federal agency monitoring them, their ozone emissions, or their quasi-health claims. Together, the engineers and journalists concluded that certain air cleaners can cause some harm while doing no good.

Independent. If we accepted thousands of dollars to run ads for products and services, how could we--or any publication--rate those products and services objectively? So, no advertising. No free samples or freebies of any kind. We buy the products we test--even the cars. We don’t take business or corporate-foundation contributions, so we’re not caught between the dollars from a company and the performance of its products. We prohibit companies from using our Ratings in advertising or promotional materials. Those Ratings exist to help you make informed choices, not to help companies sell. We provide free information to one and all about safety issues, recalls, and public-policy concerns, while we work for consumers’ rights in the marketplace. All Consumers Union employees must adhere to strict conflict-of-interest guidelines. Our board members must be independent as well, with no connections to a business or manufacturer that might influence them.

Nonprofit. We’re a nonprofit organization--no shareholders to please, no stock prices to worry about. That’s not what we’re about. Our mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers, and to empower consumers to protect themselves. CU supports itself through the sale of Consumer Reports information products and services, individual contributions, noncommercial grants, and fees.

Expert. Independent. Nonprofit. That’s who we are, and that’s what you’ll get from Consumers Union and the Consumer Reports brand.

Jim Guest President