Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on about 4 million recalled vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats.

As a temporary step, Toyota will have dealers shorten the length of the gas pedals beginning in January while the company develops replacement pedals for their vehicles, the Transportation Department and Toyota said. New pedals will be available beginning in April, and some vehicles will have brake override systems installed as a precaution.

Popular vehicles such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid, are among those recalled. Also included is the luxury Lexus ES350, the model in a fiery fatal accident in California that focused public attention on the danger.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, announced the massive recall in late September and told owners to remove the driver's side floor mats to prevent the gas pedal from potentially becoming jammed. The recall and extensive fix is the latest problem to confront the Japanese automaker's sterling reputation for quality during a period of rapid growth, and it prompted top executives to push for improved quality controls.

"The safety of our owners and the public is our utmost concern and Toyota has and will continue to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate measures to address any defect trends that are identified," Toyota said in a statement.

The recalls, announced Wednesday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, involve some big-name companies, including Pottery Barn Kids and IKEA as well as smaller companies that sold their window covers at retailers such as Target.

No deaths were associated with the blinds and shades from Pottery Barn Kids and IKEA, but CPSC says there have been six reports of children becoming entangled in the inner cord of the Pottery Barn Kids shades.

CPSC says the three deaths, which date back to 2006, involved blinds or shades made or imported by Vertical Land Inc., of Panama City Beach, Fla., and Lewis Hyman Inc., in Carson., Calif.

A one-year-old was killed in 2007 when he became entangled and strangled in the lift cord loop of a roll-up blind from Lewis Hyman that had fallen into his portable crib, CPSC said. The company is recalling about 4.2 million of the blinds.

It's also recalling more than a half-million roman shades following the strangulation death of a 13-month-old boy last year. The child was found with his head caught between the exposed inner cords and cloth on the backside of the shade, the agency said.

Vertical Land is recalling more than 32,000 blinds and shades following the death of a four-year-old girl. Her death was first reported to CPSC in 2006. The girl was strangled in the loop of a vertical blind cord that was not attached to the wall or floor.

They tapped Lauren Stone's 401(k) retirement savings and saved $1,000 by installing Chinese-made drywall throughout their two-story home. Now the Stones are among hundreds of Katrina victims facing another, this time unnatural, disaster.

Sulfur-emitting wallboard from China is wreaking havoc in homes, charring electrical wires, eating away at jewelry, silverware and other valuables, and possibly even sickening families.

"The bathroom upstairs has a corroded shower-head, the door hinges are rusting out," said 50-year-old Thomas Stone, the longtime fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans. And then there's the stench, like rotten eggs, that seems to get worse with the heat and humidity.

"It makes me wish there would be another flood to wash it out," said his wife Lauren, 49.

Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 500 million pounds of drywall around the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, an Associated Press review of shipping records has found.

Lawyer Peng Jian said the Xinhua District Court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang is the first Chinese court known to have accepted a lawsuit in connection with the scandal.

Peng said Wednesday the suit was filed by a parent from Beijing whose child was one of thousands sickened by milk deliberately contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Peng said the suit demanded 31,000 yuan ($4,538) in damages from the now defunct Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group. Peng said the 11-month-old victim became ill after drinking Sanlu's infant formula.

In January, Baxter International sent a warning to customers about issues with its Colleague infusion pumps that could cause them to stop pumping and overheat. On Wednesday the company said the FDA classified the announcement as a Class I recall, its most severe warning. The classification applies to problems that can cause "serious adverse health consequences or death."

Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe blasted the agency in a letter Thursday for not moving faster.

"Why did it take the FDA 47 days, almost 7 weeks ... to decide that this problem was serious enough to merit being classified as a Class I recall?" Wolfe wrote in a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Frank Torti.

FDA's classification has limited real-world impact. Baxter's products are not actually being called off the market, but the serious warning is necessary because malfunctions with the devices can be fatal.