Product confessions: incident reporting backgrounder for health care professionals

When you or your patients report unsafe products, it can help protect people in Canada.

Unsafe consumer products and cosmetics can cause injury and death while putting significant strain on people and the health care system.

Every year, thousands of people in Canada are injured, and some are killed because of consumer products that are unsafe or malfunctioning. Even cosmetics can sometimes cause severe injuries and adverse reactions. These incidents can have significant impacts on our society, including costs to the health care system, to productivity, and to individuals, families and communities — but many of them are preventable.

Investigating unsafe products and ensuring appropriate corrective action is taken is part of Health Canada's mandate to help keep people in Canada safe. Information from the public can help make it happen.

Health Canada's Consumer Product Safety Program enables people in Canada to report any injuries, deaths or property damage caused by consumer products or cosmetics, as well as any concerns they have about the safety of their products. Reporting is important, but many people in Canada aren't aware they can do so.

You can help spread the word.

Why is reporting important?

Reporting enables Health Canada to monitor the safety of consumer products and how they are used, and could help prevent injuries or deaths from happening to other people in Canada. The information is valuable for understanding how and why incidents occur, identifying concerning trends and public safety concerns, and informing prevention efforts such as investigations, product recalls, safety alerts or other corrective measures.

In 2018 across Canada, injuries were responsible for:

• 77,475 deaths
• 61,400 temporary and permanent disabilities
• 231,530 hospitalizations
• 4.6 million emergency room visits
• $20.4 billion in direct health care costs
• $29.4 billion in total economic costs

While not all of those injuries can be attributed to unsafe products, Health Canada received only about 2,355 consumer product incident reports in the same year. This suggests that many incidents are not being reported.

Source: Cost of Injury in Canada 2021 – Parachute report

What can you do?

As a health care professional, you are uniquely positioned to be aware of injuries or near misses related to consumer products or cosmetics and to promote action. You can:

• Encourage your patients to submit a report online at Canada.ca/report-a-product or by calling 1-866-662-0666 (toll-free)

• Download resources to provide to your patients
• Place information resources in your clinic

You are also able to submit a report on behalf of your patients.

When should you or your patients report a product?

You or your patients should report a product if:

• Someone has been injured or nearly injured, has a bad reaction or dies from using it
• Property has been damaged
• It could cause harm because it is defective or malfunctioning
• Safety instructions or labels appear to be missing, confusing or wrong

What should you or your patients report?

You or your patients will be asked to provide information on:

• What happened and when
• What the product is and where they got it
• Any injuries or near misses that occurred and if any medical treatment was needed
• How they can be contacted for more details about the incident (only if we need to)

Photos of the product, product labels, injury or property damage caused, can also be shared.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about recalled consumer products and cosmetics visit Canada.ca/recalls.

You can learn more or submit a report at Canada.ca/report-a-product.

Your story can protect others.