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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has now opened a state-of-the-art scientific testing facility to give consumer safety cops and watchdogs a stronger capability of testing appliances, tools and other products that can potentially harm us. Every month I like to post a list of voluntary product recalls that affect home improvement buffs and those of us who might buy the latest and greatest stuff on impulse.

The new CPSC center will be used for reviewing products that receive consumer complaints, including mattress flammability testing and carbon monoxide alarm testing. The CPSC then leans on manufacturers until they issue voluntary recalls of their poorly designed tools or appliances. I’m often astonished that many recalls come in the home-safety device category. Here are some recalls announced for June:

Riskyvarna

Did you buy one of the 1,600 Husqvarna yard tractors with TuffTorq K46LD transaxles? They seem to have a serious problem coming to a stop, with consumers reporting drive failures and loss of brakes. That would be bad. Check the consumer alert site for model numbers.

Uncool appliances

GE is recalling more than 90,000 Zoneline air conditioners and heaters manufactured by Sharp electronics. Several property owners reported that their GE Packaged Terminal Air Conditioners (love the use of the name “terminal”) burst into flames. The units were sold in this country from March 2010 through March 2011. Check for serial numbers at the CPSC.

Don’t go near the water

Eight manufacturers of swimming pool and spa drain covers are recalling the products that pose what the CPSC calls “entrapment hazards” to swimmers. The recall affects more than a million covers sold in the United States. Rather a lot, really! The Association of Pool and Spa Professionals has created a website to identify the makes and serial numbers of the covers included in the recall. If you own one, take heed, and just run through the sprinklers until a replacement cover arrives.

Green roof companies are sprouting up all around the country. There’s a large concentration of them along the Mid-Atlantic States, but they’ve been in operation all across the nation for the last five years. The idea of roof-top gardens isn’t new. They trace back at least as far as ancient Babylon. Consultants at Green Roof Technology speak of older civilizations that created earthen huts or modified caves that doubled as gardens and spiritual centers.  Unlike today’s rooftop gardens, these tended to leak and crumble.

Eco-roofs really caught hold again in Germany of the late 1970s. Jörg Breuning was introduced to the practice as a German landscape company employee. He brought the system and his experience to Maryland in 1988 and founded Green Roof Technology to develop less expensive and lightweight systems that would suit American architecture.

Rooftop green gardens

Living Roofs, Inc. is the first company in Florence, South Carolina to focus on commercial, residential, and institutional buildings. The company installed this 28,500 square-foot garden roof atop the city’s Federal Courthouse. (Read more about Living Roofs.)

Residential Eden

This three-level house with rooftop gardens is also super insulated and has nary an energy footprint with its passive solar array. Located on a hill north of San Francisco, this home to three generations of one family is a green work of beauty.  Look at the interiors!

Grow your own

This garden work in San Francisco’s Embarcadero proves that building architecture need not limit the creation of green rooftops. Rachel Mathews of the Successful Garden Design blog notes that in planning a rooftop garden, you’ll need to determine how to maximize usable space (including walls), discover how much weight the roof can bear, select the right plants for your climate and round up the lightest materials you can.

Why not give it a try?