This week's swath of product recalls will take another bite out of consumer confidence and provide another exercise in damage control for manufacturers dependent on foreign factories, experts say.

"If I was a company importing from China, I would be very concerned right now," said Terry Flynn, a crisis communication and management professor at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business. "Customers are now going to be asking how safe are things from China?"

His comments follow an announcement issued yesterday by Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker, that 46 million of its handsets contained defective batteries made in China that could in rare cases overheat and even dislodge during recharging.

At the same time, nearly one million Chinese-made toys in Canada made by toy-making giant Mattel Inc. were included in a global recall of nine million toys over concerns the toys contain magnets that could be swallowed by children or could have "impermissible" levels of lead in paint.

Monday, Gilchrist & Soames, an Indianapolis-based hotel toiletry company recalled guest tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste after discovering they could contain diethylene glycol, a chemical in antifreeze.

Flynn said domestic companies will need to improve internal safety audit systems, then communicate them to the public to regain consumer confidence.

Christine Simpson, a consumer product safety officer with Health Canada, said in the last 10 years the number of recalls, particularly for juvenile products, has escalated as more manufacturing has moved offshore.

"We used to say to stick with the major brands but that doesn't seem to be helpful," she said. "At least the major brands have quality control systems to find out these issues. They don't want to sell something that's not safe."

Flynn said the challenge for corporations such as Mattel or Nokia will be to manage the process of recalling the items through retailers while maintaining customer loyalty.

"The Mattel case is particularly interesting. Consumer behaviour -- especially with parents will be emotional, immediate and will exhibit a high degree of concern."

"The risk to (Nokia's) reputation is high though, because they are leaving it up to retailers to manage that reputation. If that customer has a good, positive reaction taking that battery back, they will not penalize Nokia. But if I go back to (the retailer) and have anything less than the high level of customer service I expect, then I am going to punish Nokia."

He said Ford experienced a major problem with its customers when the Bridgestone tires on some of its vehicles were recalled. "They told their customers to go back to the dealers and (the dealers) weren't ready."

Kathryn Murphy is vice-president of product management at Tomax, a Utah-based firm that sells retail software that tracks and manages recalls. She said the spate of recalls appears to be an impact on not just brands, but entire categories of goods.

"The pet food impact was so massive that thousands of items had to be pulled off the shelf in a month period. Not only are there more frequent recalls across more categories but they exploded because of the consolidation in manufacturing. It seems to affect a category more broadly than in the past."

Murphy said toy makers will try to find alternative sources outside China to avoid the devastating recalls. But she said toys are price sensitive and it won't be easy.

"I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I honestly don't know how well our retailers are going to recover from this toy recall because it's just so widespread."

With files from Spectator wire services

lmarr@thespec.com

905-526-3992

Who checks what's for sale?

The consumer product safety net is in the hands of about 35 officers with Health Canada's consumer product safety department. These officers randomly survey consumer products regulated by legislation such as the Hazardous Products Act. Otherwise, it's up to importers/manufacturers to ensure they comply with Canadian legislation or standards and keep customers satisfied and safe. Check out all recalls issued by Health Canada at www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/index_e.html. You can also check the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's website for some products at www.cpsc.gov. Consumers with complaints or questions about products can call a toll-free line at 1-866-662-0666 and calls will be routed to the nearest regional office.