Protection legislation a win for our children

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

Your world is about to become significantly safer. On Thursday, President Bush signed a bill that is considered to be the strongest consumer protection legislation in decades. This is good news for all of us, especially our children.

“It’s a huge victory,” says Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety at the Consumer Federation of America. “This is a public interest win over special interests. It’s a consumer win over big industry.”

Consumer advocates spent years pressing Congress to strengthen product safety laws and give the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the authority and resources it needed to prevent dangerous products from coming to market. But until now, nothing happened.

“The toy industry and the manufacturers were successful over the last 20 years in getting Congress to look the other way while the CPSC nearly died from neglect,” says Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs at U.S. PIRG.

Lawmakers were forced to face reality last year after millions of toys were recalled because of lead paint and lethal magnets. Angry parents demanded action.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act of 2008 will greatly improve the safety of children’s products and give the commission the muscle it needs to protect all consumers from unsafe products.

“It’s a new day when the CPSC is restored to being a strong regulator, no longer something industry can manipulate,” Mierzwinski says.

The new law nearly doubles CPSC funding by the year 2014. The agency will be able to build a new testing lab and add more than 100 staff positions. CPSC will soon have full-time inspectors at the major ports of entry looking for dangerous products before they can enter the country.

It will also have the power to impose much larger civil penalties on companies that break the rules. The maximum fine goes from $1.8 to $15 million.

Julie Vallese, director of public affairs at CPSC says the agency will not be able to do some of the things Congress wants until lawmakers vote to boost the agency's budget. "This is not an appropriations bill," she points out. "The bill is a great thing and it's going to give the agency more tools, but we won't have some of those tools in effect until at least late 2009."

The toy industry supports this legislation which should restore consumer confidence and help boost sales.

Toy safety now a top priority
The new law virtually eliminates lead from all toys and children’s products. The lead allowed in paint will drop to minute levels. Items made from significant amounts of lead, such as children’s jewelry, will now be banned. In 2006, a child who swallowed a heart-shaped charm died from acute lead poisoning. The ridiculous legal loophole that allowed children’s jewelry to be made from lead will be closed.

Congress also banned a group of toxic chemicals called phthalates from toys and children’s products. These chemicals soften plastic used to make some pacifiers, teethers, and baby bottles.

Phthalates are in a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. Industry argues there is no proof the low levels of phthalates found in children’s products are harmful. Environmental scientists disagree.

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