Watchdog Blog

More Information Means Safety for Consumers

Anyone who has been following the progress of the consumer product safety reform legislation, H.R. 4040, closely knows that a proposed database housing consumer complaints has been one of the major points of contention during the legislative process.  (We have previously discussed the database here.)  While the conference committee negotiates the contours of the safety database, we have this story:

In 2002, engineers from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) privately warned nail gun makers that the nail gun industry’s efforts to reduce the rising number of injuries with its tools wouldn’t really work; this, according to recently disclosed federal documents.

For some reason, the CPSC engineers’ views, warnings, and requests for additional study of nail guns safety features, were not addressed or disclosed publicly to US consumers.  Meanwhile, thousands of workers and home consumers continued to buy or rent nail guns at giant hardware stores nationwide during the country’s most recent housing boom.  Because of this, those sent to hospitals—both workers and home consumers—with hand, foot, knee, and head injuries that were caused by air-powered nail guns climbed to 42,000 in 2005, up significantly from 12,982 in 2000, according to federal hospital injury data.

This is a perfect example of the necessity of a public repository of consumer safety complaints.  If the proposed database had existed at the time of these nail-gun injuries, the hospital injury data would have been entered in the database and available to the public.  Consumers could have seen the upward trend in nail gun-related injuries and known to avoid that particular product.  This is not a one-time story.  As one of our recent reports demonstrates, industry and the CPSC are failing drastically to warn consumers promptly about serious product hazards.

With a product safety database available on the Internet, consumers will not have to rely as much on the manufacturers or the CPSC to protect them.  They will be able to help themselves by doing their own research.  A free exchange of information will save government resources and make everyone safer.

Time for Congress to Pass Strong Consumer Protection Law

By Joe Newman
Cross-posted from CitizenVOX

Right now, leaders in the House and Senate are preparing to make decisions behind the scenes that will have a tremendous impact on consumer protection in this country. If they can put aside partisan differences and ignore the lobbyists from the manufacturing industry, they have a chance to craft a bill that should help to stem the flood of life-threatening, hazardous products that led to a record number of recalls last year. On Thursday, parents and consumer activists rallied near the Capitol to urge Congress to pass the strongest protections possible. It’s especially an important issue for parents. Last year some 25 million hazardous toys and children’s products, many laden with high concentrations of lead, were recalled.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have each passed a version of the Consumer Product Safety Reform Act (S. 2663/H.R. 4040) and senior members from both houses of Congress are meeting in conference to negotiate a compromise bill.

The Senate and House bills take important steps toward better protecting American consumers by giving the CPSC more resources, improving product testing standards and increasing the penalties manufacturers face for violating the law, among other improvements.

You can take action by writing your member of Congress and urging them to pass the strongest bill possible.

Stroll for Safety in DC Tomorrow

Dangerous toys are still on the shelves. We need your help to make sure Congress enacts the kind of toy safety our children deserve by banning phthalates and significantly reducing levels of lead in kids’ toys.

Bring your kids -- America’s littlest consumers -- to a stroller rally tomorrow at the Capitol to tell Congress toys should be safe enough for kids!

With your help, we recently pushed the House and Senate to pass legislation that will make consumer products safer.  Now a conference committee is reconciling the differences between the two bills, including banning the use of lead and phthalates -- an industrial plasticizer and a powerful reproductive toxin -- in children’s products.

Join us TOMORROW at the Capitol to tell Congress to get tough on toys!

Also, if you haven’t already, please send an instant email now to your members of Congress! 

The rally and press conference will start at 10 AM TOMORROW, Thursday, May 15, 2008 at the Upper Senate Park on Constitution Ave between New Jersey and Delaware Avenues, in Washington, DC.

Questions?  Send an email to action@citizen.org for more information, or to let us know you're coming.  Don't forget to tell your family and friends with kids in the DC area!

What is the Hold Up with Product Safety?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been "working on" several rules to ensure product safety since at least 2004 (two since 1994!). These rules cover hazards that the agency itself blames for more than 900 deaths and more than $460 million in property damage every year.

These unfinished rules would help protect the public from:

• Bed rails, crib slats and baby bath seats that can suffocate, strangle or drown infants;
• Excessively flammable upholstery, bed linens and clothes that are among the leading causes of fire-related death in U.S. homes; and
• Cigarette lighters that, by the CPSC’s own analysis, fail to meet an industry-created voluntary standard at least 60 percent of the time.

Current law requires the agency to produce a final rule within 14 months of adopting an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), a standard the agency has met only once since President Bush took office in 2001. Since 1990, the CPSC has completed 38 rules; just four of those were during the Bush administration.

Public Citizen’s new report, “Held Back: Incomplete Consumer Product Safety Commission Rules, Class of 2007,” details each of the rules that are in development and the reasons for the delays.

The CPSC is hamstrung by rulemaking procedures that are far more burdensome than those of most federal agencies. The rulemaking procedure established by Congress during the Reagan era requires the agency to provide double the usual amount of notice and opportunity for public comment, to explain repeatedly why it is not deferring to industry’s voluntary proposals, and to prove that any rule imposes as little burden as possible on industry.

Moreover, the agency’s procedures call for it to halt any rulemaking if industry creates a voluntary standard that appears likely to address the problem – even though such voluntary standards are unenforceable. Not surprisingly, industry often derails the CPSC’s efforts by strategically adopting voluntary rules.

These problems point to the need for Congress to reform the CPSC to fulfill its mission of protecting the public from hazardous products.  The Senate is considering a bill now that would give the CPSC some much-needed muscle.  You can write your senators here now.

Learn more and read the report at www.ToyingWithSafety.org.

Industry and Republican Allies Gear up to Fight Moderate Consumer Health and Safety Bill

by David Arkush and Graham Steele

Republicans and Democrats in the Senate recently spent weeks negotiating a moderate, bipartisan consumer product safety bill, the “CPSC [Consumer Product Safety Commission] Reform Act of 2007” (S. 2663). After these negotiations concluded, and with the bill cued go to the Senate floor soon, industry is making a last-ditch effort to derail or further weaken it. This week, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and a few other Senate Republicans, apparently playing the role of mouthpiece for industry, circulated a strategy packet for defeating the CPSC bill. The packet includes a list of “Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the CPSC ‘Reform’ Act,” which is riddled with misstatements about the bill. Apparently, industry knows it can’t win an honest debate against an important consumer safety law, so it’s going dirty.

Time to Put Safety First

Defective and dangerous products - from lead-painted toys to vacuum cleaners that catch fire - are being allowed onto our store shelves and into our homes.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has failed to do its job and protect American consumers. 

Public Citizen just released a study showing that manufacturers often wait nearly three years before telling the CPSC about defective products that can kill people - and the agency typically takes another seven months to warn the public.  Some of these products include infant swings implicated in six deaths.

We need a strong, effective agency that can warn the public quickly about dangerous and defective products - and enforce the law against violators.  Under current law, the CPSC must ask permission from manufacturers to get vital safety information to the public.  What's more, the agency can't fine companies enough to make sure that they comply with the law.

The status quo is unacceptable - the CPSC should protect American consumers, not manufacturers!

The Senate commerce committee recently reported out the Consumer Product Safety Reform Act of 2007 (S. 2045), a bill that would give the CPSC much-needed muscle.  Now it goes to the full Senate for approval.  But, as happens all too often in Washington, D.C., bills that are carefully honed in committee become unrecognizable after amendments, concessions and the inevitable congressional horse trading take their toll on a proposal’s original intent.

Please urge your senators to ensure that the Senate bill passes intact - without weakening changes - for everyone's health and safety. 

New Study Shows Deadly Delays in Notification of Dangerous, Defective Products

Today we released a new report showing that despite a law requiring manufacturers to provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) with "immediate" notification of dangerous products, there are long delays before the public learns of dangerous, defective products.

The study, Hazardous Waits: CPSC Lets Crucial Time Pass Before Warning Public About Dangerous Products, covers 46 cases since 2002 in which the CPSC fined manufacturers for failing to adhere to the law requiring prompt reporting.  In addition, companies fined for tardy reporting took an average of 993 days - 2.7 years - between learning of a safety defect in their products and notifying the CPSC.

Perhaps as shocking, the CPSC then took an average of 209 additional days before disclosing the information to the public - even though each case concerned a product defect so dangerous that the item was recalled.  Under current law, the CPSC cannot disclose information about dangerous products without court approval or manufacturer agreement.

Among Public Citizen's findings:

• Graco waited 11 years to report its faulty infant swing, which was linked to reports of 181 falls that resulted in six deaths and nine serious injuries, including bone fractures and concussions. Graco made the report only after CPSC staff contacted the company.
• Hoover waited five years to report a vacuum cleaner with a faulty switch that had caused at least 96 fires. The CPSC then took another 279 days before negotiating a recall and informing the public.
• By February 2000, Polaris Industries had received 1,147 reports of faulty oil lines on its ATV, including 42 instances where the hot oil started a fire and 18 cases in which the oil seriously burned a rider.  But the company didn't report the defect to the CPSC for another year.

It's time to change the law to give the CPSC the authority to truly protect consumers.  Read the study and more about the problems with the CPSC.

A Holiday Wish: Safer Toys

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is supposed to monitor and protect us from dangerous toys and thousands of other products.  Instead, it has been notoriously cozy with the manufacturing industry.  The result: deadly toys and products on our shelves and in our homes.

On Thursday, December 12, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce failed to adequately strengthen the “Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act” (H.R 4040).

The House bill does not do nearly enough to strengthen the agency, which presently doesn't have the same power as other regulatory agencies.  Many improvements in authority and standards are needed.  Congress at the very least should require CPSC to give consumers an “early warning” about potentially dangerous products, mandate broader pre-market testing requirements of toys, provide for more timely product recalls, and allow CPSC to stop potentially hazardous imports at ports of entry.

Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) should be commended for their efforts in trying to improve the bill.  But the committee has rejected their sensible amendments - including one by Eshoo to reduce the allowable level of lead in children's products.  It seems the Democratic leadership on the committee has cut a deal with the Republicans to pass a watered-down, industry-friendly bill. 

Are most of the committee members really more interested in protecting industry profits and their campaign contributions than consumers?

It’s not too late for the committee to put safety first, as they will resume consideration of the bill again Tuesday, Dec. 18.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been giving many gifts to industry. Now it’s time for Congress to go back to the workshop and put something better under the tree for consumers.

RECALL Nancy Nord

While parents were in panic over the lead paint on their children's toys (like "Robot 2000"), what was the head of the government agency in charge of protecting us doing?  Traveling - on the dime of the very industries she is supposed to be regulating.

Nancy Nord, the interim Chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), has not shied away from that fact that she accepts lavish trips from the industries she regulates and even claims that it is perfectly ethical. 

The CPSC is charged with monitoring thousands of products that we use everyday, including toys, but has been systematically gutted by lack of funding and industry-friendly political appointees.  A proposed bill, the CPSC Reform Act of 2007, would help fix that.  It would more than double the agency's funding, give it new powers to punish those who sell dangerous products, and offer protection to government whistleblowers who courageously report wrongdoing within the agency.

Guess who isn't a fan?

Nord. She is also opposed to a bill that would make her agency more effective and better protect consumers from dangerous products. Could her position having anything to do with a recent free trip to New Orleans?  Or maybe she is just more interested in protecting industry profits than consumers.

You can tell your senators to "RECALL" Nancy Nord and to PASS the CPSC Reform Action of 2007 with additional ethics reforms to prevent staff from accepting industry-sponsored travel.

The Power of People Over Profit

After our activists helped to defeat Michael Baroody as the once-dangerous nominee for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), we put out another call asking for letters-to-the-editor on the urgent need to have the agency represent consumers, not manufacturers.  One of our more moving and inspiring responses came from Lisa Lipin, a mother and consumer advocate from Skokie, Illinois.

Lisa has since been published in the Chicago Sun Times (“Bush should put people before profit”):

I am a Chicago mother who became a consumer advocate in June 2003 after my son was nearly strangled by a dangerous toy that already had been recalled in countries around the world.

I have been urging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban the Yo-Yo Water Ball for years. I successfully lobbied Illinois lawmakers to ban this toy effective Jan. 1, 2006, with Senate Bill 1960. I gained the support of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama -- all of whom sent letters to the CPSC urging that the agency ban the toy. Unfortunately, the CPSC refuses to take action and sits idle on the issue.

I was so relieved to hear that Michael Baroody, executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, had withdrawn his nomination to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission under immense public pressure. Baroody was clearly the wrong person for this position, given his background as an industry shill who spent the last 13 years of his career trying to disable the CPSC.

However, we must not forget that Baroody represents a regular practice by the Bush administration of promoting unqualified cronies and anti-government hacks to public office.

It is imperative that President Bush nominate a real advocate for consumers, rather than a spokesperson for big-business interests.

It is high time that the administration put people before profit!

The Chicago Parent also picked up a piece by Lisa, in which she challenges: "Who does the Consumer Product Safety Commission protect?" 

We congratulate Lisa on reaching thousands of readers!  We also thank her for being a relentless advocate for the safety of our children and all consumers.

Toothless in Washington: CPSC Stalls While Children Die from Dangerous Toys

A two-part series that ran today and Saturday in the Chicago Tribune tells of the outrageous neglect of child safety by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and toy makers. 

Super-powerful magnets hidden in Magnetix and other toys fall out of the plastic pieces and have almost irresistible attraction for young children, who swallow them. The magnets attract each other as they move through the intestines, ripping bullet-like holes in the intestinal wall and admitting deadly bacteria. The toy defects have led to more than two dozen life-threatening injuries and at least one death. Kenny Sweet, Jr., a Seattle toddler, was killed by nine magnets in his intestines.

Despite the efforts of parents and caregivers to repeatedly call the issue to the attention of federal regulators who could initiate a recall, the CPSC at first ignored the seriousness of the complaints. When it did finally act, its authority to take decisive steps was muddled by Reagan-era laws that badly weaken the agency, handcuffing its ability to require a recall.

It also appears that the toy makers were aware of the complaints about the severe injuries from the magnets, yet the recall notices they finally sent following negotiations with the CPSC were weak and confusingly worded. The Tribune’s investigation found that many of the recalled versions remain on toy store shelves even today.

The article is a wake-up call to Congress to fix CPSC’s authority so that it can mandate recalls of hazardous products.  It also makes it painfully clear that confirmation of Bush’s nominee, manufacturing association lobbyist Michael Baroody, would be nothing short of a cataclysm for the safety of American families.