What data can you use to drive your business and improve product design? CPSC has databases you can use to look for product problems by searching through consumer product-related incidents, injuries and deaths to take proactive action and minimize risk. CPSC experts will discuss how these databases are used by CPSC internally to examine potential actions; how to search and use CPSC’s national injury database (NEISS) and SaferProducts.gov to identify problems; and how these databases may benefit business and industry in promoting safer products.

1. PANEL: USING CPSC DATA TO
DRIVE PRODUCT SAFETY
 NJ SCHEERS, DIRECTOR, INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
 STEPHEN HANWAY, DIRECTOR, HAZARD ANALYSIS
 TOM SCHROEDER, DIRECTOR, DATA SYSTEMS
 These comments are those of the CPSC staff and have not been
reviewed or approved by, and may not necessarily reflect the views
of, the Commission.

2. PURPOSE OF PANEL
 How to use CPSC databases to help you
mine incident data related to your
products:
• SaferProducts.gov
• NEISS
√ What this panel is not:
• a discussion of policy issues related to
each database

3. SIZE OF THE PROBLEM EACH YEAR
Annual Estimated Losses
Associated with Consumer
Products
35,900 Deaths
38.6 Million Injuries
$900 Billion in Societal Costs

4. CPSC COLLECTS DATA FOR:
Other Federal
CPSC Agencies
 Children’s – cribs, highchairs,  Automobiles
toys  Boats
 Electrical – toasters, hairdryers,  Airplanes
holiday lights  Food
 Lawn/Garden – mowers, chain  Medical Devices
saws  Pesticides
 Household – portable generators,  Tobacco Products
furnaces, water heaters  Firearms
 Recreational – bicycle helmets,
ATVs
 Household Chemicals

5. DATA IS IMPORTANT TO CPSC
 CPSC is data driven.
 Decisions flow from the data:
 annual projects
 recalls
 outreach and education

6. CPSC DATA SYSTEMS
 Surveillance Data
 Minimal information on
hazard
 Identify trends
 Generate Hypotheses
 Assign investigations
 In-Depth investigations

7. SURVEILLANCE DATA: DEATHS
 Death Certificates are:
 Purchase from the states with codes likely to be
related to consumer products
 Collect 8,000 certificates annually
 Obtain all certificates in 3 years, most in 2 years
 Medical Examiner/Coroner Reports
 Consumer-product related deaths reported
immediately
 Collect about 5,500 reports each year
 Important early warning system

8. PRODUCT-RELATED INJURY DATA
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System
(NEISS)
• Stratified national probability sample of 96
hospitals with emergency rooms
• System collects 400,000 product-related
injury reports each year
• Provides national estimates
• Data available on www.cpsc.gov

9. NEISS: MULTILEVEL SYSTEM
 Level 1: Routine surveillance of emergency
department injuries
 Level 2: Special emergency department
surveillance activities
 Level 3: In-depth telephone investigations
 Level 4: In-depth on-site investigations

10. IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATIONS
Collect additional information on cases of
special interest:
 Collected by telephone or on-site
investigation
 Trained investigators collect the data
 Protocols developed by subject matter
experts
 Analysis by staff helps determine
potential Commission actions

11. SURVEILLANCE DATA: SAFERPRODUCTS.GOV
• Required by the Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act passed by Congress in 2008
• Data collected since 3/11/2011
• Allows public to report and search for risks of harm
• Permits business to submit comments and other
information electronically
• Allows public to search for recall information
• Allows firms registered with SaferProducts.gov to
receive notification of reports of harm as quickly as
possible

12. SURVEILLANCE DATA – OTHER SOURCES
More than 30,000 reports annually
 News Clips
 Hotline Reports
 Poison Control Centers
 National Fire Incident Reporting System
 National Burn Center Reporting System

13. HOW IS THE DATA USED AT CPSC?
 Voluntary Standards
 Mandatory Standards
 Compliance Activities
 Outreach/Education
 FOIA Requests

14. EXAMPLE: USING DATA TO MAKE
BABY WALKERS SAFER

15. INCREASING INJURY TREND
Before Voluntary
Standard

16. DATA ANALYSIS (NEISS, ON-SITE INVESTIGATIONS)
 83% of the injuries were falls downstairs.
 84% of the severe injuries resulted from
falling downstairs.
 Infants 9 months old, under 28 pounds.
 Occurred during normal use with caregiver
nearby.

17. DECREASING INJURY TREND
Baby Walker-Related Injury Rate: 1981 to 2001
8
Injury Rate Per 1000 Live Births
7
6
5
4
3
2 After Voluntary
Standard
1
0
1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001

18. OUTCOME
 NEISS data helped identify major injury
scenario with baby walkers.
 Industry used NEISS data - designed a
safer baby walker.
 NEISS allowed CPSC staff to track and
evaluate the successful reduction of baby
walker injuries.