Behind the scenes

CR called on Fisher-Price to remove its Rock 'n Play Sleepers from the marketplace in April after the product was tied to 32 infant deaths since 2009. In addition, CR and the American Academy of Pediatrics urged the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue a recall of the Sleeper and to investigate other infant inclined sleep products.

Shortly after our announcement, Fisher-Price recalled all 4.7 million of its Sleepers and told people to immediately stop using it. Kids II also recalled about 694,000 of its Rocking Sleepers, citing "five infant fatalities," four of which were first reported by CR in April. CR is concerned that the CPSC didn't move more quickly. Marta Tellado, president and CEO of CR, said "It took dogged investigation and the voices of doctors, victims' families, and advocates across the country to make this recall a reality. Congress needs to take a hard look at the CPSC and make sure it is a watchdog that consumers can rely on."

CR recommends that parents and caregivers with other inclined sleepers should also stop using those products. As a supporter, you make investigations like this to keep families safe possible. Thank you!

Thanks to you and other CR members, we've taken a huge step forward to end the "worst of the worst" robocalls! Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill to help address the skyrocketing number of "spoofed" robocalls—those annoying calls that mimic phone numbers from your bank, the power company, or even your own phone number. The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act)—directs phone companies to put in place an effective framework to authenticate calls and block spoofed calls before they reach your phone.  

CR supporters sent more than 250,000 emails this spring to their Senators urging support of this legislation. On April 3, we went to Capitol Hill with people victimized by  robocall scammers to speak up for millions of consumers. You can see photos of Jeri and Barry here and watch a terrific brief video about the event. In addition, more than 200,000 CR supporters signed a petition to the Federal Communications Commission.

Now, we are going to work to take the TRACED Act to the U.S. House of Representatives. No doubt the CR community will be right alongside us making sure this legislation gets over the line to victory! Your support plays an important role in making sure consumer voices are heard and companies are held accountable, especially when it comes to harmful business practices such as robocalls. Thank you.

A CR investigation found that some bottled water contains more arsenic than tap water. Arsenic is a naturally occurring heavy metal that can cause disease and also affect child development.  

We tracked down and reviewed hundreds of public records and test reports from bottled water brands, and from federal and state regulators. The federal government sets the limit for arsenic in drinking water, whether from a bottle or the tap, at 10 ppb. CR and other health experts recommend that the federal limit for arsenic for bottled water be revised to no more than 3 ppb. Six brands had levels of 3 ppb or higher and one even exceeded the federal limit of 10ppb. The brands CR found with 3 pbb or higher of arsenic were Starkey (owned by Whole Foods), Peñafiel (owned by Keurig Dr Pepper), Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water, Volvic (owned by Danone), and two regional brands, Crystal Creamery and EartH₂O. Following our report, Peñafiel tested its bottled water and found an average of 17 parts per billion of arsenic. They have suspended its production of the water. CR has called on the Federal Drug Administration to issue a recall, but it has yet to do so.  

CR's work—which focused only on arsenic levels—shows that, unlike tap water, bottled water is regulated in a hodgepodge fashion. But bottled water is now the nation's best-selling bottled beverage, according to the International Bottled Water Association. James Dickerson, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at CR notes that "If anything, bottled water—a product for which people pay a premium, often because they assume it's safer—should be regulated at least as strictly as tap water."

On December 19, 2017, Facebook announced a new setting for controlling whether it can collect facial recognition data. A video on the blog page said, "Anyone can opt out of face recognition entirely through their Facebook account settings." But CR has recently found that while many users have been granted control, others have not.

We examined the accounts of 31 Facebook users across the U.S. The participants allowed us to record video as they navigated their settings under our direction. We found the Face Recognition setting missing from eight of the accounts we documented. CR sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, which is currently investigating Facebook, detailing what we found.

If you have a Facebook account, you'll find Face Recognition setting on your main account settings page. If the control is available to you, you'll see a link to the Face Recognition setting page halfway down the list of options on the left of your screen.  Click here to find out from CR what to do if you don't have the setting.