Normally we're supposed to be concerned about depleting ozone levels to the point where we inhabit one big sauna, but according to an investigative piece by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), household air purifiers which produce the gas as a byproduct may also pose a significant threat. Studies cited by the Journal suggest that both ozone generation as well as filtration models can emit dangerous levels of the reactive gas, which can be harmful either when inhaled directly or when combined with other common chemicals. While the CSPC is currently studying hard emissions caps to place on these products, California has already taken a first step by limiting purifier ozone output to 50 parts-per-billion starting in 2010. Meanwhile, executives from mall mainstay The Sharper Image are scrambling to discover another gimmicky product they can hang their hats on.

The Consumer Product and Safety Commission has just issued a voluntary recall on two models of Sauder Woodworking television stands that have caused 43 reports of injury. Some 414,000 of the stands, sold at Wal-marts nationwide from January 2005 until May of this year, can collapse if the legs on the lower shelf aren't assembled properly. Consumers should stop using the stand if it begins to move "side-to-side," although we'd probably recommend grabbing a pair of pliers and throwing a little elbow grease into those bolts, just to make sure.

It looks like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has plenty of hazardous products to keep itself busy with these days, today announcing recalls of a pair of washing machines just a day after they sent out word of some flammable keyboards. The washers in question are Samsung and Maytag front-loading models sold between April 2005 and August 2006, totaling some 270,000 units in all (almost all Maytags -- click on through for the specific model numbers affected). Apparently, they have the nasty habit of leaking water onto the electrical connections inside, potentially causing a short and a fire as a result. While there's been reports of five such incidents so far, none have resulted in injuries or damages beyond the washing machine itself. Those stuck with one of the washers are advised to contact Maytag or Samsung for information on getting a free repair.

Read - Maytag recall information
Read - Samsung recall information
Read - CPSC announcement

Many of us have fond childhood memories of scarfing down delicious, undercooked treats courtesy of the old Easy-Bake Oven, but it looks like today's chefs-in-training have a little more to worry about than runny brownies: Hasbro is recalling almost a million of the toys because of a risk of burns and trapped extremities. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 985,000 Ovens sold between May 2006 and the beginning of this month contain a potentially dangerous defect, wherein children can receive a nasty burn on their chubby little fingers after getting them trapped in the oven's opening. So far there have been 29 reported incidents of stuck fingers and five reports of burns, prompting Hasbro to release a retrofit kit that apparently remedies the problem and sports a helpful warning label. Owners of the affected models should immediately pull their rugrat away from that soufflé he or she is baking and stick the Easy-Bake on a high shelf until the kit -- which is free by request -- arrives in the mail. In the meantime, this might be a good opportunity to review the whole "stop, drop, and roll" procedure and teach your tykes to apply burn cream, just in case another one of their toys (Flamosapien, perhaps?) gets a little hot under the collar.

No, the word "recall" isn't entirely synonymous with "battery," but in this case, we're afraid the dreaded overheating Li-ion curse has struck again. This time the recall is hitting Clarion's N.I.C.E. P200 in-car navigation / entertainment unit, and the problem seems to be the same as nearly every other recall currently out -- it's too hot for comfort. Reportedly, about 2,500 units are potentially problematic, and with "four reports of the unit melting or overheating" due to a faulty Li-ion cell, the company isn't taking any chances. So if you've got the 4-inch flavor of Clarion's do-it-all with a serial number ended in "UE" or "UF," you should power that bad boy down immediately (and call for a free replacement) before that "NAVBATTERY" gets a little hot under the collar.

And you thought you could go the whole day without reading a single battery recall-related post; sorry, we'll try harder tomorrow. So you probably remember yesterday's scary report which quoted a Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson predicting that Sony's upcoming US battery recall will expand beyond just laptops, and might include portable DVD players and videogame consoles too. Well the same woman who made that statement, Julie Vallese, has now backtracked somewhat by telling CNET that "Any recall that the agency will make will be limited to batteries that power notebook computers. We have no anticipation at this time beyond that." So, does this mean that those other types of batteries are safe -- or that the CPSC knows about problems with them, but since they apparently won't be part of the recall, there's no need to worry the public? It's hard to say at this point, although Vallese's previous comment was pretty clear -- unlike the following response from Sony spokesperson Rick Clancy: "Sony has provided a wealth of technical data to the CPSC involving this tech, and it is omnipresent in a host of portable electronic devices, but as far as we know, from Sony's perspective, there is no initiative planned at this time that goes beyond what has already been communicated with respect to notebook computers." Doesn't sound very reassuring to us. Only time will tell if other kinds of devices are at risk from those little metal particles that tainted many a laptop cell, but if we had to proffer a guess, we'd say it's pretty unlikely that the QA breakdown which allowed so many batteries to become fire hazards was limited only to the manufacturing processes for notebook power packs. Let's hope we're wrong about this one.

Wouldn't you know it? Right after we got done throwing away recycling all of our laptop PCs in favor of an explosion-free, desktop computing environment, Consumer Reports comes along with the disturbing news that some of our other favorite gadgets may have been tainted by Sony's huge batch of crappy batteries as well. In its On Safety blog, CR quotes Consumer Product Safefy Commission spokesperson Julie Vallese as saying that "the upcoming Sony recall [in October] could very well expand beyond notebook computers and could include DVD players and portable gaming devices." That's right folks, not only is it unsafe to use a laptop anymore, there's also a slight chance that all your battery-powered devices are ticking timebombs that could totally ruin a quiet night of Grand Theft Auto or Kill Bill. We'll keep you posted on the latest developments here, but if you just can't get enough of this inflammatory (ahem) fear-mongering, head on over to our new spin-off -- Engadget Recalls -- for round the clock coverage of what has now become the defining issue of our time.