In response to the recall of 45 million toys and children’s
products in 2007, the House and the Senate both passed strong CPSC Reform Acts
granting the beleaguered agency new funding and authority to police imports and
banning lead in children’s products. Final action on a conference committee
report resolving differences, however, has been delayed by numerous industry
requests for exceptions to the law, the groups said.
“Will Congress give ExxonMobil and the toy industry
Christmas in July or will it guarantee America’s littlest consumers a safe
holiday season by finishing CPSC reform now,” said James Browning, Director of
PennPIRG.
The groups said that last week’s action on establishing a
public database of potential hazards was a major step forward, but that special
interest lobbyists were standing in the way on the following key items:
Subjecting numerous toy hazards, including the small
powerful magnets that have already killed one little boy, to the new law’s
centerpiece third party testing requirements.
“It would be a tragic irony if a law passed to protect
against toy hazards didn’t require toy hazard testing,” said Nancy Cowles,
director of Kids In Danger.
Banning toxic chemicals known as phthalates from
children’s products. The Senate version of the legislation included
the Feinstein amendment to ban phthalates. It passed on the floor on a voice
vote; the House bill has no similar provision. California
and Washington State
have already imposed similar bans, the groups said.
“It comes down to risks versus benefits. The risk is
to our children’s health while the benefits go to ExxonMobil, which profits
from phthalates,” said Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National
Research Center
for Women & Families. She added, “The phthalate DINP must be included
in the ban. It’s the one most widely used in toys.”
Ensuring product safety by ensuring that product safety
whistleblowers have rights. The House bill is silent. The groups support
inclusion of a Senate whistleblower protection provision, noting that the
CPSC has a chilling “don’t talk, don’t publish” culture that stifles disclosure
of critical safety information that is also at odds with numerous laws that
Congress has enacted to protect whistleblowers in other sectors.
The groups also urged conferees to reject an eleventh
hour proposal that would preempt states from regulating new third party testing
procedures. The preemption provision is found in neither the House
nor Senate-passed bills.
The groups looked at the most recent available CPSC data for
the report “Total Recall,” released today. In the first six months of 2008,
according to analysis of available CPSC recall notices, 108 children’s products
were recalled, including 45 for lead contamination and 10 for hazardous
magnets. Of those 108 products, fifty-three toys have been recalled this
year already, totaling 6.2 million units. Last year by June, there had been
only 84 children’s product recalls, which included 31 toy recalls.
“The 22% increase suggests strongly that what the toy
industry called “last year’s problem” remains very much today’s problem,” said
Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, “and points to the urgent need
for Congress to finish action on the CPSC Reform Act.”
The complete report is available at www.pennpirg.org.
PennPIRGs-Total-Recall.pdf