December 12, 2025 • 30 mins
"Always there to keep us safe by reducing the risk of injuries during the holiday season, it's US Product Safety Investigator, MaryAnn McGerty Sieber." www.cpsc.gov
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Sylvia Moss and this is Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia,
where we really do care about our local communities and
all our listeners who live here. A couple of weeks ago,
I was reading an article about a really bad fire
that destroyed six homes overnight.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
While everybody was sleeping.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It happened about an hour from Harrisburg and took out
these six row homes, left twenty three people homeless, and
put two firefighters in the hospital. They still don't know
what caused the fire, but one woman who lost her
home was quoted as saying, why do fires like this
always seem to happen during the Christmas holidays? Well, when
I read what she said, the first person I thought
(00:36):
of was Mary Anne mcgerty. Sever She is the product
safety investigator with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. She've
been doing it in an awful long time, and if
anybody knows anything about it, it's Mary Anne. Her basic
duties are very specialized because she looks into products or
product related incidents. She assesses the risk and ensure that you,
as a consumer have products that meet safety standards.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Anyway, I wanted to get her in here.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Because she and I talk about this every time when
it comes around the holidays of Christmas, holidays, so we're
caught up in these terrible things that go on with fires,
and people are so busy they don't even know, you know,
that it's going on. So one of the things I
did learn from you among many, Marianne, is there are
at least forty seven thousand fires in the United States
(01:24):
every year that cause hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries,
and large property losses.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Are we learning our lesson? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I think so? But you know, Sylvia, and first let
me say hello, is the holidays, and I guess we're
really focusing and we do. You know, it's a happy time.
We're getting together with family and with friends where we're
going to parties. The kids are excited for the holidays,
you're off from school. And we also introduce a lot
(01:52):
of various new things into the house that could cause
some issues. You know, from to the tree, whether it's artificial,
whether it's live, is it drying out, is the fire
has or And then you bring in the holiday and
you see where there can be a potential. You know,
the fire doesn't have to be have a cause of
(02:14):
say the lights or the extension court. It could be
something else that comes up. But you then take in
the holiday, you take in the surroundings, what's happening in
the house, and the tragedy becomes accelerated.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Is it true that most of the fires that happen
happening in the kitchen when people are cooking?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
They do? And you know what, I think we all
are increasing whether you're a baker and your niche is
the desserts in the family, which I'm lucky enough because
I have a daughter who loves to do that, so
that takes care of our but also to cooking fires,
(02:53):
and that really kind of starts, I guess, you know,
with Thanksgiving, when you know it is kicks off that
holiday season and kicks off I guess the increase that
they know who's cooking in the kitchen. You know, it
could go from seniors, could be Grandmam who has cooked
the meal for fifty years and we always go to
(03:15):
her house every year. It could be the new family
that just moved into the house that might have a toddler,
you know, kind of milling about in the kitchen. So
you kind of have to watch about opening and closing
up indoors, or it simply could be everyday seniors you
know eight or consumers middle age. I mean we all
(03:35):
all these guidelines really kind of follow any age in
terms of being in the kitchen preventing these fires from
occurring injuries of course, because frankly, who wants to spend time,
you know, calling nine one one for either one the
fire department or two having to call yourselves out to
the hospital mercy room because someone has gotten burned and
(04:00):
we need to take care of that business. So I
mentioned Thanksgiving, but could be you know, Thanksgiving your Christmas.
Sometimes you hear about the turkey friars.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's yeah, I haven't used them, have you. No?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
My son has, but you know he does all kinds
of goofy stuff like that, but when he does it, it's
out in, you know, it's not he learned a lesson
one time he got too close with the grill and
how to replace the side and piece of siding.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But yeah, it has to be. It has to be ventilated.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I know that, yes, and believe it or not, people
will you know, well, I think it was traditionally a
Southern activity came north and sort of took off. It
kind of became a thing where sometimes the average consumer so, well,
why can't I try it? They don't stop and think
about where it is that they live, or you know, yeah, sure,
(04:49):
things such as you know, off while I live in
a high rise and I have a balcony, okay, a
south side, I can still do that. No, and you know,
depending on where you live, or maybe some rules and regulations.
You mentioned ventilation of course important. The perimeter. It's just
like the grill, you know, kind of staying away from
(05:09):
one the house, deciding who's out in the backyard, really
kind of keeping with and never leaving the cooking food.
I mentioned kids, I mentioned pets. Whether it's the stovetop
or whether it's the turkey friar, having the you know,
some of a myths your utensils, stovetop, How are you
(05:35):
positioning things? It just might be routine or we don't
even stop and think about now we're putting things on
top of that cook top and we don't realize that
we've turned handles and now it makes it accessible to
the you know, grandchild that's uh, you know, mobile in
the house. Stuff setting up that perimeter and around the area,
(05:57):
whoever's in the kitchen, whoever's cooking, watch pets, toddlers, and
the turkey frier. Of course, please be careful read the directions.
From what I understand, it can be a lot of fun,
great activity, but stay with whatever it is that you're cooking.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm gonna call one of your daughters and say, hey,
your mom thinks that it might be fun.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So just you know, get her a turkey fire for Christmas. Yes, yes,
I know you want.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess the lesson to be learned about doing whether
you're cooking indoors or with the turkey fryer, is never
leave it unintended.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yes, it's really important because we really don't know what
kin occur. We talk about that with the grill, that
could be the turkey fryer, but even the simplest things
like on the stovetop. Perhaps you know, with the holidays,
we have decorations in and around that is the cook
top area. Maybe there is another glove that's nearby, maybe
(06:55):
that you've put some type of decorative candle. Maybe there's
some type of you know, holiday decoration that when normally
is not there even a plant for that matter, so
there could be other things in and around that perimeter
in addition to just the use of the of whether
it's a gas stove, whether it's an electric stove, and
(07:16):
you know, simply opening and closing the door, you know,
changing the clocks. We always talk about that smoke detector
and a lot of times people will say, you know,
where they have a position is real close to the
kitchen and every time I put up, you know, a
pot of water on the stove exactly, I'm just gonna,
(07:39):
you know, I'm just gonna disconnect it because it's just
a nuisance. Don't please, don't do that. I'll always make
sure that is connected. A lot of times you can
that is the warning. I mean, that is the point
of having that smoke detector is a warming you especially
if you are walking away from you know, what it
is that you're cooking, and even just the use of
(08:02):
the oven itself. There could be some issue that comes
up with your ovene. You mentioned the CPSC where the
agency that you know, if someone says, no, I'm not
familiar when you hear about a recall in the news
regarding as consumer products, that's us. We do anywhere from
(08:22):
two hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty recalls
every year. We could be in the news almost every
single day. We are interested in hazards associated with consumer products.
We are especially interested in hearing from your listeners. They
are our eyes and ears. My agency operates nationwide. We
(08:43):
have product safety investigators. Our headquarters is in Maryland in Bethesda,
a lab nearby in Rockville, but we operate with probably
somewhere in the four hundreds. In terms of the job
that we do.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Your job, the lives that you've saved, can you imagine that?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I mean it is. It is exciting when you really
kind of take a step back and you realize that
as you mentioned, yes, I've been around for a while,
but not only do we you know, really kind of
hit from children instants straight through the seniors. But thinking
about those statistics that I said in terms of the
(09:26):
number of recalls that we do every year, and you
take that over a period of time, the PSC has
been in business more than fifty years back in the seventies. Yeah, created, yes,
and we broke off from FDA. We are an independent
agency that means we report directly to Congress. We don't
(09:46):
come under any other agency and also too. Each year
Congress says what did you do with your money? What
did you do with your budget? So it is important
we operate lean. We have a big you know, in
terms of regulation, we regulate over fifteen thousand different types
of products. I mentioned a little bit in terms of
(10:08):
your listeners. Let me give some information. If anyone has
a concern something, even if something doesn't happen, something doesn't
seem quite right while you're using a consumer product, reach
out to us. It is one eight hundred six three
eight two seven seven to two our toll free hotline.
(10:28):
I'm sorry. Our website address is www dot cp SC,
dot gov gov. From there, there's, as I mentioned, over
fifty years, every recall we've ever done is on that website,
very simple to read. All you really are looking for
(10:49):
is the products model number, serial number, and then you
can get some guidances to perhaps you know, you're referencing
something somebody's giving you as a hand me down. You
went to the local drift store. YEP, it's very easy
to check any of that. You can just get right
on your phone look something up. If you're you know, thinking,
(11:10):
you know, I think i'd like to buy this, but
let me just double check and see has there been
any recall.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, you know, Marianne, over the years, and you and
I have been talking for quite a number of years.
You can't imagine number of times I would refer people
to your website and listen. I do listen to what
you say because I can remember also, and we were
talking about babies and ways to protect babies. And I
was going to this baby shower and I printed up
this little thing in the card with the gift I
gave with your your web dress and all these little things.
(11:38):
And the girl that was having that, she said, oh,
this is wonderful. Where can I get more information? You
take care of everything.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, And the agency has evolved over the years, because
I was just saying this to someone today. Today's parents,
today's or are not necessarily like you know, looking at
the news or reading a news paper. They're finding out
things through social media and CPSC has evolved into all
(12:07):
types of platforms, Twitter, flicker, parenting blogs because that's where
the you know, young families or finding out you know,
was there a recall? Okay, let me double check. Let
me see if I had that particular stroll or do
I had that high chair because they caught half the
information or one of their friends said something to them.
(12:28):
But you know what is the easiest way to do?
And I especially say this when you're buying a lot
of gifts for that maybe new baby, be it whether
it's the new grandchild or new child in the house.
Is any consumer product that you buy, please fill out
that registration card, even if it's something simple like your
(12:48):
email address. It is your connection between you and the manufacturer,
just like if you bought that brand new card. Think
about all that paperwork.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Well, yell out.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
When we get that notification that there's been a recall,
we have to head back to the dealership. Same thing.
They will send you a note. They will say to you,
there's been a recall in reference to this stroller, and
this is the information that you need to do to
make sure that the stroller that you have is safe
for your child.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And what's more important than your child? How about it?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Of course, let's talk a little bit more about the
Christmas things are going to Christmas?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
How about the Christmas tree?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
What would you suggest to people like a live tree
in order to what's your best chance of keeping everything
safe in your home?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
If you have a live tree.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Well, number one. Yeah, if you want to see that
it's fresh. And then you know, you start right from
where you're buying it, whether it's the local fire department,
whether it's the you know, garden center. Where you're buying
that live tree. You can tap it a little bit,
see how many meals are falling off. Take those branches,
bend them. If it's nice and sauce. If it's pliable,
(13:56):
that means that it is fresh. If it's beginning to snap,
it is drying out. Typically they always will cut a
couple inches off the bottom and them to do that.
Once you get it home, you want to really get
it in that bucket immediately you buy it. You know,
so you're buying it and you're going to decorate it.
You buy it Friday night, you're going to decorate it
on Saturday. Get it into the hat and you know,
(14:17):
into the garage, grab a bucket, throw some water in there,
and just get it in there. In it o will
suck up that water overnight. Saturday morning. You pull that out,
get that positioned in your house. Where am I going
to put it? Important, especially with a live tree. Yes,
it looks beautiful right next to the fireplace. But please
be careful because it will accelerate, you know, drying out
(14:40):
the tree and the early days of getting that tree in.
I can attest to that myself. We get a live
tree every year. We just bought ours on Friday. I
would say every day we have filled it with a
full cup of water because it is just sucking up.
Of course there's needles all over the place. But that's
(15:01):
the other whole other story. So as far as the positioning,
maybe you need to close events kind of pay attention to.
As I mentioned we talked about the tree. We talk
about lights indoor and outdoor. There are two types of
lights out there, holiday lights. We're talking about the same
thing for extension cords. Indoor extension cords outdoor extension cords.
(15:26):
Use them accordingly, because those indoor extension cords that we
have in our house are not meant to be outside.
It is cold out there. We get crazy inclement weather.
We don't know whether it's a nice storm. You know,
the indoor extension cords just don't hold up. And those lights,
we really recommend three strands at a time, stop begin
(15:48):
another set plugging them in.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I'm glad I was wondering at myself. How many can
I connect together?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Three?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Okay, yes, And as far as connecting them all, get
that little power thing that we have you know at
home for the computers or the printer or whatever we
have set up, same concept. You can plug in multiple
products nice and simple. Push that button on and off.
And as I'm saying, turning things off. Go to bed
(16:17):
at night, leave the house to go out shop and
go out to dinner. You're leaving the house, I know
that you really want to show off your display, whether
it's the tree in the front window, whether it's the
lights and all the time you spend outside making that
your front lawn look beautiful. Please turn it off at night.
Turn it off. You know, if you leave the house,
(16:39):
you don't want to roll up to your house because
something has happened. And we have pets in the house.
You know, you don't know what it is that they're
doing while you're not around front. And those extension cords,
I know it kind of sounds like there's a couple
of thoughts here. One, please make sure that you're using them,
you know, as I said, indoor and outdoor, but also
(17:01):
to if an extension for it has a three prong
typically that's sometimes not the case, but sometimes they do.
Usually you might see that, say like on a heater,
a radiator type mobile heater. The move around, but please
don't remove. You know, say your outlet is an older
outlet and you don't have something that has three prongs.
(17:24):
That's a pretty inexpensive purchase. You can get them really anywhere,
sort of an adapter that you put right on the outlet.
Be careful of how much you're loading onto the outlets
in the house. No matter what age your house is,
we never have enough outlets. And where you're putting the
extension courts. You think, okay, well, for let me like
(17:46):
stick it under the rug here. It won't be a
trip hazard. Wrong, you're really walking over the rug and
you're creating friction and actually create a fire associated with that.
But also to be careful about you know, sometimes people
will say, well, I'll just put it around the baseboard
and they'll take some type of perhaps staple or some tech. No,
(18:08):
there are other ways and safer ways for you to
secure that. But ultimately, you know, the best advice is
once you get those holiday lights, the extension cords the tree,
please make sure you're designating somebody you know, and the
half one to check that tree for you know, water.
(18:30):
Two holiday lights. Please turn them out when you leave
your house or when you go to bed at night.
Also too, when we talk about trees and lights and
extension courts, sometimes all of this kind of comes in.
We talk about candles and the potential there for a
fire hazard. Your best bet is to enjoy the candles
(18:55):
in the room and what you're in. So that means
not leaving it in the dining room after dinner is over,
in the foyer, in the bathroom, because you don't know
if say the front door is opening closing gear comes
some breeze that walks, you know, that kind of comes in,
and there's droopery right next to the you know, the window,
(19:17):
and somehow something connects on and then you have the
potential fire hazard there. Fire officials always talk to us
about candles being among the leading sources of residential fires
because when we leave them, you know, we leave them on.
We don't extinguish them. Ventilation is key. A couple thoughts here.
(19:41):
One yes, believe it or not. People do put them
inside closed and containers such as say a china cabinet.
Two Sometimes yes, we want to duplicate and make our
holiday tree look like episode and we put real candles
on a can.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
People be so dumb. I'm sorry, but I'll come on.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You can you can buy some beautiful artificial flickering flames
to them that look exactly like that. Again, it kind
of brings in, you know, the potential there, whether it's
the fireplace or whether you have other things that are
in and around, you know, greenery, it's the tree. Yeah,
(20:26):
and also too, I mentioned a little bit about the pets,
what you have, whether you have a dog a cat.
I just I just said this to my brother the
other day. Yeah, they have two cats now, and I
said something to them. I said, you don't have any
live plants in the house, do you? And he said no.
You know, as a matter of fact, his daughter is
(20:48):
doing a points at a fundraiser and he said, we
can't even have those here. He says, because of the cats.
So if you don't know that, then reach out to
your local and ask. There is a list out there
that you know, what is the best thing. I remember
we used to do that for my mom because she
had a cat. We had to really pay attention if
(21:09):
we were buying her flowers or any type of plant
that we bought something that was safe for a pet. Again,
this is all great information, and as you mentioned, you know,
with this time of year, we were very hurried. We
(21:30):
made very safety conscious and very cautious otherwise, but you know,
it is a rush. We need to go from things
such as you know, decorating our house to buying toys
for whether it's our kids or whether it's our grandchildren,
are we buying safe toys for them each year? I
(21:52):
think as consumers we always hear the ten worst lists
or the twenty worst lists. Know that CPSC is looking
at that three sixty five. If we see a hazardous
toy in March, we're not waiting until the end of
the year to make it part of a ten worse list.
We want to address the hazard. We want to get
the information out to consumers so that they can take
(22:14):
a look and see if they have that toy in
their house and go ahead, go ahead. Multiple ages. I
just wanted to kind of touch real briefly on that
multiple ages and a half is always the thing. My
girls are two and a half years apart. My youngest
always thought she was the same age as the older sister.
(22:34):
But there are certain markers, and typically, as far as
CPSC is concerned, three and under is a big one
because that's small parts. So typically that's where you see
kids are putting things into their math. I'm not saying
everyone my girls never really did that, but you don't
know they could.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's right, they aren't magnets. Really bad news if they
swallow magnets.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yes, and we see them in various toys. Sometimes they
can can dislodge from a particular toy. Sometimes kids will
put them in their mouths and there's very severe damage
that can occur once they're ingested.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You know one thing you always talk to me about
and when I think about you, I think nice things,
of course all the time about you, But when I
think about what we've talked about a lot of the years,
one thing keeps popping up litpan batteries.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
How are we doing with that?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yes, so there's lots of potential out there. They can
go from e bikes to our cell phones to our laptops.
So my number one is buy a battery that is
associated with the product. I know we're all tempted to
buy something that might be cheaper, but always buy something
(23:48):
so you know, the inexpensive cell phone, the inexpensive e
bike that you might see somebody selling in a parking
lot shopping center and you find out it's, you know,
just a price that you can't turn down. They may
be selling that or on you know, the streets in
(24:08):
the city, but there's no battery associated and you think, well,
I'll just deal with that. I'll go buy a battery
at another time. Now, you always want to make sure
that the product is together. You're buying something that is
compatible and that it is safe, and please follow the directions.
All across the country, there have been fires associated with
Luthian ion batteries and they can go from e bytes
(24:32):
to as I said, cell phones to laptops. Read the directions.
Please be careful about charging those batteries and follow the
directions as they're indicated there. You know, we have had
incidences in New York City in Philadelphia where there have
been fires. They can be in multiple family units. So
(24:55):
you have a family and in a high rise that
you know has a fire associated with looking on iron
battery and you could be taking out the whole floor
or multiple floors and multiple apartments and families. So the
danger is there. Going right back to that smoke detector.
Please make sure that all the smoke detectors in your home, apartment,
(25:19):
townhouse are all safe, the batteries are up to date.
Is it time to replace it sounds like a super
boring gifts, but a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide
detector for maybe your elderly parents that may live in
their original home. It doesn't sound like all that, you know,
(25:42):
kind of fancy type of idea, but you know, giving
you peace of mind knowing that you've gone through their house,
You've replaced all the batteries, you've replaced all the smoke detectors,
you've added a carbon monoxide detector. You know, you give
it gives you piece of mind. It gives them peace
of mind knowing that their house safe.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, we're all when the kids start to get
all older, we the first thing we think about is
that they went the scooters.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They went the what do they call those things?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Oh that they stand on the Are those the inline skates?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, there you'll find a lot of lifty and batteries
in those. And also people forget that how dangerous they
can be. What do you suggest to protect their kids?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Well? Number one, I would say buy and there's many
out there for bikes, inline skates, scooters, there's many types
of sizes out there. Buy one that's intended for the
age I know that we want to, you know, buy
something that will last and you'll get some time out
of it. But our kids grow, so you don't want
to have something that is unsafe for them while they're
(26:49):
using it. Number Two, safety gear, So that could be
the helmets, depending upon what it is, you know that
you're buying. All those type products really require helmets, and
depending on where you live, there could be rules and
regulations the helmet itself. There's now a CPSC label on
bike helmet she type up to the age of five,
(27:11):
a larger helmet because that tender head of a child
up to the age of five. And then it's the
traditional bike helmets that you know have been around forever.
In a day when my girls were younger, I can
never figure out what was the front in the back,
and you know you have to, you know, we have ponytails.
It can't be hanging off the back of the head.
(27:33):
The chin strap has to be nice and tight, so
you pinch them every time. Are you putting it you
know the front directly, you know straight. It really kind
of fits directly above the eyebrows and should be nice
and snug. If you know your child, if not even
also a child, but as an adult as well. If
(27:55):
you are involved in any type of accident and that
helmet hits the ground, it did what it was supposed
to do, but replace it could be some internal damage.
We never recommend that you buy a second hand or
use a hand me down helmet. Always make sure that
it's new and if you see experior damage, especially replaced.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
You know, I could talk to you all day long.
We've got so much more to cover, but guess water
times running out. But what I would like you again?
What is your one eight hundred number? And especially important
and you're going to be amazed what you find on
the website.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That is www dot CPSC dot gov goob fifty years
worth of recalls you can check on PSC's website. Toll
free hotline number one eight hundred six three eight two seven,
seven to two Monday through Friday, normal business hours. Someone
(28:49):
want answer the phone. If you can't call us during
that time, leave a message. We will give you a callback.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know I've been doing this program almost thirty years,
and I can honestly say that I quote you more
than any other guests on this program, and I have
learned so much for you, and I am especially grateful
for everything you've given, not knowing to our listeners, but
the information you've given has saved so many lives.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Maryanne, you're such a dedicated I was gonna say a
proud American, a.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Dedicated employee, and no, seriously, and it's it's been wonderful
all these years, and I'm looking forward to you for
twenty twenty six, twenty seven, as long as they're all
slow still here. But also I want to ask you
again that that website address, which is the most important,
is what.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
It is, www dot CPSC, dotv.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Goov Marianne, thank you so much. My guest again, Maryamiguerardy Siver.
She is the Product in Safety Investigator with US Product
Safety Commission.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Again, I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been insight.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Catch it every week on one of our ten Ihearts
stations or anytime in your favorite podcast step. Thanks so
much for listening. Thanks Mary Ann. SI next week and
by the way, hey kid, Merry Christmas.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Sylvia Moss and this is Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia,
where we really do care about our local communities and
all our listeners who live here. A couple of weeks ago,
I was reading an article about a really bad fire
that destroyed six homes overnight.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
While everybody was sleeping.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It happened about an hour from Harrisburg and took out
these six row homes, left twenty three people homeless, and
put two firefighters in the hospital. They still don't know
what caused the fire, but one woman who lost her
home was quoted as saying, why do fires like this
always seem to happen during the Christmas holidays? Well, when
I read what she said, the first person I thought
(00:36):
of was Mary Anne mcgerty. Sever She is the product
safety investigator with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. She've
been doing it in an awful long time, and if
anybody knows anything about it, it's Mary Anne. Her basic
duties are very specialized because she looks into products or
product related incidents. She assesses the risk and ensure that you,
as a consumer have products that meet safety standards.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Anyway, I wanted to get her in here.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Because she and I talk about this every time when
it comes around the holidays of Christmas, holidays, so we're
caught up in these terrible things that go on with fires,
and people are so busy they don't even know, you know,
that it's going on. So one of the things I
did learn from you among many, Marianne, is there are
at least forty seven thousand fires in the United States
(01:24):
every year that cause hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries,
and large property losses.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Are we learning our lesson? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I think so? But you know, Sylvia, and first let
me say hello, is the holidays, and I guess we're
really focusing and we do. You know, it's a happy time.
We're getting together with family and with friends where we're
going to parties. The kids are excited for the holidays,
you're off from school. And we also introduce a lot
(01:52):
of various new things into the house that could cause
some issues. You know, from to the tree, whether it's artificial,
whether it's live, is it drying out, is the fire
has or And then you bring in the holiday and
you see where there can be a potential. You know,
the fire doesn't have to be have a cause of
(02:14):
say the lights or the extension court. It could be
something else that comes up. But you then take in
the holiday, you take in the surroundings, what's happening in
the house, and the tragedy becomes accelerated.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Is it true that most of the fires that happen
happening in the kitchen when people are cooking?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
They do? And you know what, I think we all
are increasing whether you're a baker and your niche is
the desserts in the family, which I'm lucky enough because
I have a daughter who loves to do that, so
that takes care of our but also to cooking fires,
(02:53):
and that really kind of starts, I guess, you know,
with Thanksgiving, when you know it is kicks off that
holiday season and kicks off I guess the increase that
they know who's cooking in the kitchen. You know, it
could go from seniors, could be Grandmam who has cooked
the meal for fifty years and we always go to
(03:15):
her house every year. It could be the new family
that just moved into the house that might have a toddler,
you know, kind of milling about in the kitchen. So
you kind of have to watch about opening and closing
up indoors, or it simply could be everyday seniors you
know eight or consumers middle age. I mean we all
(03:35):
all these guidelines really kind of follow any age in
terms of being in the kitchen preventing these fires from
occurring injuries of course, because frankly, who wants to spend time,
you know, calling nine one one for either one the
fire department or two having to call yourselves out to
the hospital mercy room because someone has gotten burned and
(04:00):
we need to take care of that business. So I
mentioned Thanksgiving, but could be you know, Thanksgiving your Christmas.
Sometimes you hear about the turkey friars.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's yeah, I haven't used them, have you. No?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
My son has, but you know he does all kinds
of goofy stuff like that, but when he does it, it's
out in, you know, it's not he learned a lesson
one time he got too close with the grill and
how to replace the side and piece of siding.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But yeah, it has to be. It has to be ventilated.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I know that, yes, and believe it or not, people
will you know, well, I think it was traditionally a
Southern activity came north and sort of took off. It
kind of became a thing where sometimes the average consumer so, well,
why can't I try it? They don't stop and think
about where it is that they live, or you know, yeah, sure,
(04:49):
things such as you know, off while I live in
a high rise and I have a balcony, okay, a
south side, I can still do that. No, and you know,
depending on where you live, or maybe some rules and regulations.
You mentioned ventilation of course important. The perimeter. It's just
like the grill, you know, kind of staying away from
(05:09):
one the house, deciding who's out in the backyard, really
kind of keeping with and never leaving the cooking food.
I mentioned kids, I mentioned pets. Whether it's the stovetop
or whether it's the turkey friar, having the you know,
some of a myths your utensils, stovetop, How are you
(05:35):
positioning things? It just might be routine or we don't
even stop and think about now we're putting things on
top of that cook top and we don't realize that
we've turned handles and now it makes it accessible to
the you know, grandchild that's uh, you know, mobile in
the house. Stuff setting up that perimeter and around the area,
(05:57):
whoever's in the kitchen, whoever's cooking, watch pets, toddlers, and
the turkey frier. Of course, please be careful read the directions.
From what I understand, it can be a lot of fun,
great activity, but stay with whatever it is that you're cooking.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm gonna call one of your daughters and say, hey,
your mom thinks that it might be fun.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So just you know, get her a turkey fire for Christmas. Yes, yes,
I know you want.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess the lesson to be learned about doing whether
you're cooking indoors or with the turkey fryer, is never
leave it unintended.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yes, it's really important because we really don't know what
kin occur. We talk about that with the grill, that
could be the turkey fryer, but even the simplest things
like on the stovetop. Perhaps you know, with the holidays,
we have decorations in and around that is the cook
top area. Maybe there is another glove that's nearby, maybe
(06:55):
that you've put some type of decorative candle. Maybe there's
some type of you know, holiday decoration that when normally
is not there even a plant for that matter, so
there could be other things in and around that perimeter
in addition to just the use of the of whether
it's a gas stove, whether it's an electric stove, and
(07:16):
you know, simply opening and closing the door, you know,
changing the clocks. We always talk about that smoke detector
and a lot of times people will say, you know,
where they have a position is real close to the
kitchen and every time I put up, you know, a
pot of water on the stove exactly, I'm just gonna,
(07:39):
you know, I'm just gonna disconnect it because it's just
a nuisance. Don't please, don't do that. I'll always make
sure that is connected. A lot of times you can
that is the warning. I mean, that is the point
of having that smoke detector is a warming you especially
if you are walking away from you know, what it
is that you're cooking, and even just the use of
(08:02):
the oven itself. There could be some issue that comes
up with your ovene. You mentioned the CPSC where the
agency that you know, if someone says, no, I'm not
familiar when you hear about a recall in the news
regarding as consumer products, that's us. We do anywhere from
(08:22):
two hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty recalls
every year. We could be in the news almost every
single day. We are interested in hazards associated with consumer products.
We are especially interested in hearing from your listeners. They
are our eyes and ears. My agency operates nationwide. We
(08:43):
have product safety investigators. Our headquarters is in Maryland in Bethesda,
a lab nearby in Rockville, but we operate with probably
somewhere in the four hundreds. In terms of the job
that we do.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Your job, the lives that you've saved, can you imagine that?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I mean it is. It is exciting when you really
kind of take a step back and you realize that
as you mentioned, yes, I've been around for a while,
but not only do we you know, really kind of
hit from children instants straight through the seniors. But thinking
about those statistics that I said in terms of the
(09:26):
number of recalls that we do every year, and you
take that over a period of time, the PSC has
been in business more than fifty years back in the seventies. Yeah, created, yes,
and we broke off from FDA. We are an independent
agency that means we report directly to Congress. We don't
(09:46):
come under any other agency and also too. Each year
Congress says what did you do with your money? What
did you do with your budget? So it is important
we operate lean. We have a big you know, in
terms of regulation, we regulate over fifteen thousand different types
of products. I mentioned a little bit in terms of
(10:08):
your listeners. Let me give some information. If anyone has
a concern something, even if something doesn't happen, something doesn't
seem quite right while you're using a consumer product, reach
out to us. It is one eight hundred six three
eight two seven seven to two our toll free hotline.
(10:28):
I'm sorry. Our website address is www dot cp SC,
dot gov gov. From there, there's, as I mentioned, over
fifty years, every recall we've ever done is on that website,
very simple to read. All you really are looking for
(10:49):
is the products model number, serial number, and then you
can get some guidances to perhaps you know, you're referencing
something somebody's giving you as a hand me down. You
went to the local drift store. YEP, it's very easy
to check any of that. You can just get right
on your phone look something up. If you're you know, thinking,
(11:10):
you know, I think i'd like to buy this, but
let me just double check and see has there been
any recall.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, you know, Marianne, over the years, and you and
I have been talking for quite a number of years.
You can't imagine number of times I would refer people
to your website and listen. I do listen to what
you say because I can remember also, and we were
talking about babies and ways to protect babies. And I
was going to this baby shower and I printed up
this little thing in the card with the gift I
gave with your your web dress and all these little things.
(11:38):
And the girl that was having that, she said, oh,
this is wonderful. Where can I get more information? You
take care of everything.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, And the agency has evolved over the years, because
I was just saying this to someone today. Today's parents,
today's or are not necessarily like you know, looking at
the news or reading a news paper. They're finding out
things through social media and CPSC has evolved into all
(12:07):
types of platforms, Twitter, flicker, parenting blogs because that's where
the you know, young families or finding out you know,
was there a recall? Okay, let me double check. Let
me see if I had that particular stroll or do
I had that high chair because they caught half the
information or one of their friends said something to them.
(12:28):
But you know what is the easiest way to do?
And I especially say this when you're buying a lot
of gifts for that maybe new baby, be it whether
it's the new grandchild or new child in the house.
Is any consumer product that you buy, please fill out
that registration card, even if it's something simple like your
(12:48):
email address. It is your connection between you and the manufacturer,
just like if you bought that brand new card. Think
about all that paperwork.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Well, yell out.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
When we get that notification that there's been a recall,
we have to head back to the dealership. Same thing.
They will send you a note. They will say to you,
there's been a recall in reference to this stroller, and
this is the information that you need to do to
make sure that the stroller that you have is safe
for your child.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And what's more important than your child? How about it?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Of course, let's talk a little bit more about the
Christmas things are going to Christmas?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
How about the Christmas tree?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
What would you suggest to people like a live tree
in order to what's your best chance of keeping everything
safe in your home?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
If you have a live tree.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Well, number one. Yeah, if you want to see that
it's fresh. And then you know, you start right from
where you're buying it, whether it's the local fire department,
whether it's the you know, garden center. Where you're buying
that live tree. You can tap it a little bit,
see how many meals are falling off. Take those branches,
bend them. If it's nice and sauce. If it's pliable,
(13:56):
that means that it is fresh. If it's beginning to snap,
it is drying out. Typically they always will cut a
couple inches off the bottom and them to do that.
Once you get it home, you want to really get
it in that bucket immediately you buy it. You know,
so you're buying it and you're going to decorate it.
You buy it Friday night, you're going to decorate it
on Saturday. Get it into the hat and you know,
(14:17):
into the garage, grab a bucket, throw some water in there,
and just get it in there. In it o will
suck up that water overnight. Saturday morning. You pull that out,
get that positioned in your house. Where am I going
to put it? Important, especially with a live tree. Yes,
it looks beautiful right next to the fireplace. But please
be careful because it will accelerate, you know, drying out
(14:40):
the tree and the early days of getting that tree in.
I can attest to that myself. We get a live
tree every year. We just bought ours on Friday. I
would say every day we have filled it with a
full cup of water because it is just sucking up.
Of course there's needles all over the place. But that's
(15:01):
the other whole other story. So as far as the positioning,
maybe you need to close events kind of pay attention to.
As I mentioned we talked about the tree. We talk
about lights indoor and outdoor. There are two types of
lights out there, holiday lights. We're talking about the same
thing for extension cords. Indoor extension cords outdoor extension cords.
(15:26):
Use them accordingly, because those indoor extension cords that we
have in our house are not meant to be outside.
It is cold out there. We get crazy inclement weather.
We don't know whether it's a nice storm. You know,
the indoor extension cords just don't hold up. And those lights,
we really recommend three strands at a time, stop begin
(15:48):
another set plugging them in.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I'm glad I was wondering at myself. How many can
I connect together?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Three?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Okay, yes, And as far as connecting them all, get
that little power thing that we have you know at
home for the computers or the printer or whatever we
have set up, same concept. You can plug in multiple
products nice and simple. Push that button on and off.
And as I'm saying, turning things off. Go to bed
(16:17):
at night, leave the house to go out shop and
go out to dinner. You're leaving the house, I know
that you really want to show off your display, whether
it's the tree in the front window, whether it's the
lights and all the time you spend outside making that
your front lawn look beautiful. Please turn it off at night.
Turn it off. You know, if you leave the house,
(16:39):
you don't want to roll up to your house because
something has happened. And we have pets in the house.
You know, you don't know what it is that they're
doing while you're not around front. And those extension cords,
I know it kind of sounds like there's a couple
of thoughts here. One, please make sure that you're using them,
you know, as I said, indoor and outdoor, but also
(17:01):
to if an extension for it has a three prong
typically that's sometimes not the case, but sometimes they do.
Usually you might see that, say like on a heater,
a radiator type mobile heater. The move around, but please
don't remove. You know, say your outlet is an older
outlet and you don't have something that has three prongs.
(17:24):
That's a pretty inexpensive purchase. You can get them really anywhere,
sort of an adapter that you put right on the outlet.
Be careful of how much you're loading onto the outlets
in the house. No matter what age your house is,
we never have enough outlets. And where you're putting the
extension courts. You think, okay, well, for let me like
(17:46):
stick it under the rug here. It won't be a
trip hazard. Wrong, you're really walking over the rug and
you're creating friction and actually create a fire associated with that.
But also to be careful about you know, sometimes people
will say, well, I'll just put it around the baseboard
and they'll take some type of perhaps staple or some tech. No,
(18:08):
there are other ways and safer ways for you to
secure that. But ultimately, you know, the best advice is
once you get those holiday lights, the extension cords the tree,
please make sure you're designating somebody you know, and the
half one to check that tree for you know, water.
(18:30):
Two holiday lights. Please turn them out when you leave
your house or when you go to bed at night.
Also too, when we talk about trees and lights and
extension courts, sometimes all of this kind of comes in.
We talk about candles and the potential there for a
fire hazard. Your best bet is to enjoy the candles
(18:55):
in the room and what you're in. So that means
not leaving it in the dining room after dinner is over,
in the foyer, in the bathroom, because you don't know
if say the front door is opening closing gear comes
some breeze that walks, you know, that kind of comes in,
and there's droopery right next to the you know, the window,
(19:17):
and somehow something connects on and then you have the
potential fire hazard there. Fire officials always talk to us
about candles being among the leading sources of residential fires
because when we leave them, you know, we leave them on.
We don't extinguish them. Ventilation is key. A couple thoughts here.
(19:41):
One yes, believe it or not. People do put them
inside closed and containers such as say a china cabinet.
Two Sometimes yes, we want to duplicate and make our
holiday tree look like episode and we put real candles
on a can.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
People be so dumb. I'm sorry, but I'll come on.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You can you can buy some beautiful artificial flickering flames
to them that look exactly like that. Again, it kind
of brings in, you know, the potential there, whether it's
the fireplace or whether you have other things that are
in and around, you know, greenery, it's the tree. Yeah,
(20:26):
and also too, I mentioned a little bit about the pets,
what you have, whether you have a dog a cat.
I just I just said this to my brother the
other day. Yeah, they have two cats now, and I
said something to them. I said, you don't have any
live plants in the house, do you? And he said no.
You know, as a matter of fact, his daughter is
(20:48):
doing a points at a fundraiser and he said, we
can't even have those here. He says, because of the cats.
So if you don't know that, then reach out to
your local and ask. There is a list out there
that you know, what is the best thing. I remember
we used to do that for my mom because she
had a cat. We had to really pay attention if
(21:09):
we were buying her flowers or any type of plant
that we bought something that was safe for a pet. Again,
this is all great information, and as you mentioned, you know,
with this time of year, we were very hurried. We
(21:30):
made very safety conscious and very cautious otherwise, but you know,
it is a rush. We need to go from things
such as you know, decorating our house to buying toys
for whether it's our kids or whether it's our grandchildren,
are we buying safe toys for them each year? I
(21:52):
think as consumers we always hear the ten worst lists
or the twenty worst lists. Know that CPSC is looking
at that three sixty five. If we see a hazardous
toy in March, we're not waiting until the end of
the year to make it part of a ten worse list.
We want to address the hazard. We want to get
the information out to consumers so that they can take
(22:14):
a look and see if they have that toy in
their house and go ahead, go ahead. Multiple ages. I
just wanted to kind of touch real briefly on that
multiple ages and a half is always the thing. My
girls are two and a half years apart. My youngest
always thought she was the same age as the older sister.
(22:34):
But there are certain markers, and typically, as far as
CPSC is concerned, three and under is a big one
because that's small parts. So typically that's where you see
kids are putting things into their math. I'm not saying
everyone my girls never really did that, but you don't
know they could.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's right, they aren't magnets. Really bad news if they
swallow magnets.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yes, and we see them in various toys. Sometimes they
can can dislodge from a particular toy. Sometimes kids will
put them in their mouths and there's very severe damage
that can occur once they're ingested.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You know one thing you always talk to me about
and when I think about you, I think nice things,
of course all the time about you, But when I
think about what we've talked about a lot of the years,
one thing keeps popping up litpan batteries.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
How are we doing with that?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yes, so there's lots of potential out there. They can
go from e bikes to our cell phones to our laptops.
So my number one is buy a battery that is
associated with the product. I know we're all tempted to
buy something that might be cheaper, but always buy something
(23:48):
so you know, the inexpensive cell phone, the inexpensive e
bike that you might see somebody selling in a parking
lot shopping center and you find out it's, you know,
just a price that you can't turn down. They may
be selling that or on you know, the streets in
(24:08):
the city, but there's no battery associated and you think, well,
I'll just deal with that. I'll go buy a battery
at another time. Now, you always want to make sure
that the product is together. You're buying something that is
compatible and that it is safe, and please follow the directions.
All across the country, there have been fires associated with
Luthian ion batteries and they can go from e bytes
(24:32):
to as I said, cell phones to laptops. Read the directions.
Please be careful about charging those batteries and follow the
directions as they're indicated there. You know, we have had
incidences in New York City in Philadelphia where there have
been fires. They can be in multiple family units. So
(24:55):
you have a family and in a high rise that
you know has a fire associated with looking on iron
battery and you could be taking out the whole floor
or multiple floors and multiple apartments and families. So the
danger is there. Going right back to that smoke detector.
Please make sure that all the smoke detectors in your home, apartment,
(25:19):
townhouse are all safe, the batteries are up to date.
Is it time to replace it sounds like a super
boring gifts, but a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide
detector for maybe your elderly parents that may live in
their original home. It doesn't sound like all that, you know,
(25:42):
kind of fancy type of idea, but you know, giving
you peace of mind knowing that you've gone through their house,
You've replaced all the batteries, you've replaced all the smoke detectors,
you've added a carbon monoxide detector. You know, you give
it gives you piece of mind. It gives them peace
of mind knowing that their house safe.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, we're all when the kids start to get
all older, we the first thing we think about is
that they went the scooters.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They went the what do they call those things?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Oh that they stand on the Are those the inline skates?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, there you'll find a lot of lifty and batteries
in those. And also people forget that how dangerous they
can be. What do you suggest to protect their kids?
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Well? Number one, I would say buy and there's many
out there for bikes, inline skates, scooters, there's many types
of sizes out there. Buy one that's intended for the
age I know that we want to, you know, buy
something that will last and you'll get some time out
of it. But our kids grow, so you don't want
to have something that is unsafe for them while they're
(26:49):
using it. Number Two, safety gear, So that could be
the helmets, depending upon what it is, you know that
you're buying. All those type products really require helmets, and
depending on where you live, there could be rules and
regulations the helmet itself. There's now a CPSC label on
bike helmet she type up to the age of five,
(27:11):
a larger helmet because that tender head of a child
up to the age of five. And then it's the
traditional bike helmets that you know have been around forever.
In a day when my girls were younger, I can
never figure out what was the front in the back,
and you know you have to, you know, we have ponytails.
It can't be hanging off the back of the head.
(27:33):
The chin strap has to be nice and tight, so
you pinch them every time. Are you putting it you
know the front directly, you know straight. It really kind
of fits directly above the eyebrows and should be nice
and snug. If you know your child, if not even
also a child, but as an adult as well. If
(27:55):
you are involved in any type of accident and that
helmet hits the ground, it did what it was supposed
to do, but replace it could be some internal damage.
We never recommend that you buy a second hand or
use a hand me down helmet. Always make sure that
it's new and if you see experior damage, especially replaced.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
You know, I could talk to you all day long.
We've got so much more to cover, but guess water
times running out. But what I would like you again?
What is your one eight hundred number? And especially important
and you're going to be amazed what you find on
the website.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That is www dot CPSC dot gov goob fifty years
worth of recalls you can check on PSC's website. Toll
free hotline number one eight hundred six three eight two seven,
seven to two Monday through Friday, normal business hours. Someone
(28:49):
want answer the phone. If you can't call us during
that time, leave a message. We will give you a callback.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know I've been doing this program almost thirty years,
and I can honestly say that I quote you more
than any other guests on this program, and I have
learned so much for you, and I am especially grateful
for everything you've given, not knowing to our listeners, but
the information you've given has saved so many lives.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Maryanne, you're such a dedicated I was gonna say a
proud American, a.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Dedicated employee, and no, seriously, and it's it's been wonderful
all these years, and I'm looking forward to you for
twenty twenty six, twenty seven, as long as they're all
slow still here. But also I want to ask you
again that that website address, which is the most important,
is what.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
It is, www dot CPSC, dotv.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Goov Marianne, thank you so much. My guest again, Maryamiguerardy Siver.
She is the Product in Safety Investigator with US Product
Safety Commission.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Again, I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been insight.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Catch it every week on one of our ten Ihearts
stations or anytime in your favorite podcast step. Thanks so
much for listening. Thanks Mary Ann. SI next week and
by the way, hey kid, Merry Christmas.
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