Product liability law helps to keep consumers safe from products that have design defects, manufacturing defects, or don't provide sufficient warnings. When a company realizes that a product it provides to consumers has a defect, it usually issues a recall.
The realization can occur after people have already been injured by the defective product, or before any reported injuries. Luckily, Kidde, a well-known brand in fire prevention, has been able to identify a manufacturing defect in its smoke alarms before any reported injuries and has now issued a recall of close to 500,000 smoke alarms.