Urge
Senate to Pass Reform Measure this week
Washington, D.C.—Today,
consumer, public interest and scientific groups applaud the U.S. House of
Representatives for passing strong product safety reform legislation that would
overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The bi- partisan Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act will make consumer products safer by requiring that toys and
infant products be tested before they are sold, and by banning lead and
phthalates in toys. The bill also will create a publicly accessible consumer
complaint database, give the CPSC the resources it needs to protect the public,
increase civil penalties that CPSC can assess against violators of CPSC laws, and protect whistleblowers who report product
safety defects.
In
approving this sweeping reform measure, the House of Representatives put
children’s and consumer’s safety first by enacting the most significant improvements of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission since the agency was established in the 1970’s. The Senate must vote on this measure this
week, before the August recess, the groups urged.
“After
CPSC has suffered death by a thousand cuts, the House gave the Commission a new
life with increased resources, authority and transparency to better ensure the
safety of consumer products. We urge the
Senate to complete this vital task and pass this unprecedented product safety
reform this week before August recess,” said Rachel Weintraub, Director of
Product Safety and Senior Counsel with Consumer Federation of America.
“The
countdown to safer products has hopefully begun in
earnest today with the bi-partisan House
passage of sweeping product safety reforms. The Senate must also
pass this legislation this week, and the President should sign on the dotted
line so that the overhaul of
the beleaguered CPSC can finally start. That's when
consumers will start to have more confidence in the safety of the products
they buy,” said Ami Gadhia, Policy Counsel with Consumers Union.
“We applaud the House for recognizing that toxic chemicals
like lead and phthalates have no business in our children’s toys,” said U.S.
PIRG Public Health Advocate Elizabeth Hitchcock. “This bill is a huge
victory for America's
littlest consumers in the face of ExxonMobil and the chemical industry’s
efforts to gut it. The Senate should waste no time in sending it to the
President’s desk.”
"House
passage of this bill brings critical safety reforms to within steps of the
finish line," said David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen's Congress
Watch division. "Now the Senate needs to finish the job."
“The House did the right thing by banning
phthalates—chemicals that may be associated with reproductive problems and
cancer—in children’s toys and products,” said Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of
the National Research Center
for Women and Families. “The House put children’s safety first.”
“Scientists working on consumer product safety will also
benefit from this new legislation,” said Dr. Francesca T. Grifo, director,
Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists. “A stronger Inspector General and a website
for CPSC employees to anonymously report their concerns, along with
whistleblower protections for those who report about unsafe products, will
contribute to more transparency and accountability at this agency,” added
Grifo.
“With today’s House passage of the Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act, we are one step closer to establishing a child safety system
that will keep our children safe from tainted toys and collapsing cribs,” stated
Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger. “We now urge the
Senate and the President to act swiftly to get these life-saving measures in
place.”
The House and
Senate conferees on the product safety measure concluded action this weekend. The conference report on the legislation must
now be approved by the President for his signature. Here are some examples of how this legislation
changes and improves the safety of products sold in the United States:
• Lead will
be essentially eliminated from toys and children’s products.
• Consumers will have access to a publicly-accessible
database to report and learn about hazards posed by unsafe products.
• Toys and other children’s
products will be required to be tested for safety before they are sold.
• State Attorneys General will have
the necessary authority to enforce product safety laws.
• CPSC has the authority to levy
more significant civil penalties against violators of its safety regulations,
which will help deter wrongdoing.
• Toxic phthalates will be been
banned from children’s products.
• Whistleblowers will be granted
important protections.
• CPSC will receive substantial
increases in its resources – including its staffing levels, its laboratory and
computer resources and its various authorities to conduct recalls and take
other actions - going forward.
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Consumer Federation of America (consumerfed.org);
Consumers Union (consumersunion.org);
Kids In Danger (kidsindanger.org); National Research
Center For Women & Families (center4research.org); Public Citizen
(citizen.org); U.S. PIRG (uspirg.org)
