About PlainSafety

Our Mission

PlainSafety exists because consumers, parents, and caregivers deserve immediate access to product safety data without navigating multiple government websites or filing FOIA requests. Every year, millions of Americans are treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to consumer products, from household appliances to sporting equipment to children's toys. The data documenting these injuries is collected at public expense, yet it remains scattered across separate government databases that are difficult for non-specialists to search and interpret.

We believe that making product safety information accessible to everyone, not just researchers and regulatory professionals, leads to better-informed purchasing decisions, improved parental awareness, and ultimately fewer preventable injuries. PlainSafety consolidates 20 years of CPSC data into a single, searchable platform that puts injury statistics, consumer complaints, and recall history at your fingertips.

Our Data Sources

All data on PlainSafety comes directly from three sources maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC):

  • NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System): Nationally representative estimates of product-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments. NEISS uses a probability sample of approximately 100 hospitals to project national injury estimates. Our database covers 2005 through 2024, encompassing approximately 7.3 million case records projected to over 310 million national estimates. This is the gold standard for consumer product injury surveillance in the United States. CPSC NEISS Data.
  • SaferProducts.gov: Consumer incident reports filed directly with CPSC by the public. Over 65,000 reports with narrative descriptions, manufacturer identifications, and injury outcomes. Unlike NEISS, these are unfiltered consumer reports, they capture incidents that may not result in ER visits, including near-misses and property damage. SaferProducts.gov.
  • CPSC Recalls: 9,692 product recall announcements with hazard descriptions, remedies, and affected unit counts. Recalls are issued when CPSC determines a product presents an unreasonable risk of injury, and compliance is mandatory for manufacturers. CPSC Recalls.

How We Process the Data

We download NEISS case records, SaferProducts.gov consumer reports, and CPSC recall announcements, then process them through the following steps:

  • Product category linking: Each data source uses CPSC product codes to classify products. We link NEISS injury records, SaferProducts.gov reports, and recall announcements by product code, creating a unified view across 838 product categories.
  • Danger score calculation: Our danger scores (1-100) combine four factors: injury volume (annual estimated ER visits), hospitalization rate, fatality rate, and 5-year trend direction. Higher scores indicate greater relative risk. Scores are comparative rankings across all tracked categories, they are not probabilities of injury.
  • National projection handling: NEISS estimates are statistically projected from the probability sample. For products with small sample sizes, estimates may carry high coefficients of variation. We present all figures as reported by CPSC without modification, and flag products where sample sizes limit reliability.
  • Trend analysis: Five-year injury trends are calculated from annual NEISS estimates to identify products with increasing or decreasing injury rates, helping users spot emerging safety concerns.

Data Currency

PlainSafety currently displays data from the NEISS 2024 annual release, covering emergency department visits from January through December 2024. NEISS data from prior years (2005-2023) is also included for trend analysis.

CPSC releases NEISS data annually, typically in the spring following the reference year. SaferProducts.gov reports and recall announcements are published on a rolling basis as they are filed and finalized. We update PlainSafety within 30 days of each major CPSC data release. Like all federal statistical programs, there is a lag between when injuries occur and when data becomes publicly available.

Important Limitations and Disclaimers

PlainSafety is an informational resource. Product safety data should be one input among many when making purchasing or childproofing decisions. Every household is different, and aggregate statistics cannot capture individual circumstances.

  • Sampling limitations: NEISS uses a probability sample of approximately 100 hospitals. For rare products or uncommon injury types, national estimates may carry high statistical uncertainty. Small sample sizes do not mean a product is safe, they mean the data is insufficient for precise estimation.
  • Reporting bias: SaferProducts.gov reports are self-reported by consumers and are not independently verified by CPSC. Reporting rates vary by product type, injury severity, and public awareness of the reporting mechanism.
  • Danger score context: Scores reflect relative risk across product categories, not absolute danger. A product with a low score may still cause serious injuries; a high-score product used by millions may pose low per-use risk. Always evaluate products in the context of your specific use patterns.
  • Data lag: Government datasets typically lag 6-18 months behind the current period. Newly introduced products or recently discovered hazards may not yet appear in the data.

PlainSafety does not provide medical or legal advice. If you have been injured by a consumer product, seek medical attention and consider reporting the incident to CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainSafety is compiled by our editorial team. Raw data from CPSC, FTC, and related regulatory agencies is transformed into readable profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, validated against the source before publication. The PlainSafety editorial team, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from manufacturers, sellers, or any covered entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Contact

For questions, corrections, or feedback, email hello@plainsafety.com.

We welcome:

  • Questions about data sources or methodology
  • Reports of apparent data errors or anomalies
  • Suggestions for additional product categories or features
  • Media and research inquiries