http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/calpirg-alerts-shoppers-to-hidden-toy-hazards Calls passage of strong reforms “best holiday gift for http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/calpirg-alerts-shoppers-to-hidden-toy-hazards Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:14:52 -0600 http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/product-safety-reform-passes-key-committee Congress Takes Action After Recall of 25 Million Unsafe Toys in 2007 S. http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/product-safety-reform-passes-key-committee Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:40:00 -0600 http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/president-signs-landmark-consumer-product-safety-act FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/14/2008 CONTACT: Pedro Morillas (916) 448-4516 x112 President Signs Landmark Consumer Product Safety Act Bill Provides Important New Protections for Children and Consumers CALPIRG applauds the enactment of the landmark Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act of 2008 which provides the toughest lead standards in the world for children’s products. The Act also strengthens the oversight of toys and children’s products by the Consumer Product Safety Commission – oversight which had withered on the vine in recent years. “I want to thank Congressman Waxman and Speaker Pelosi for completing a strong Product Safety Modernization Act and for their strong leadership in helping California consumers,” said CALPIRG Legislative Advocate Pedro Morillas. "The bill is a huge victory for America's littlest consumers." Last year, California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) alerted shoppers to hidden toy hazards and released “Trouble in Toyland,” the group’s 22nd annual toy safety survey. The report stated that while progress had been made over the last two decades, researchers still found lead-laden and dangerous toys on store shelves. Also in 2007, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled millions of popular toys, including Barbie and Polly Pockets, for poorly designed magnets that fell out. Other toy hazards reported in the CALPIRG annual survey included toys containing phthalates and other toxic chemicals, excessively loud toys, and strangulation hazards. Consumer groups also dubbed 2007 the “Year of the Recall.” This year, dangerous toy and product recalls occurred at an even swifter rate. Among these, the CPSC has recalled more than one million more magnet toys based on the 2007 CALPIRG survey. According to a report released by CALPIRG and partners in the product safety coalition in July, recalls have increased by 22% in 2008. The bill is a historic step forward in product safety. In addition to its massive increase in CPSC resources and funding, and its increase in civil penalty and recall authorities, the new law will: • make industry's voluntary toy standard mandatory, which means that magnets and many other hazards will be subject to the new law's centerpiece third party testing requirement. • ban six toxic phthalates in children's products. Three are banned permanently. Three would then be subject to a CPSC scientific review, but are banned until it is completed. If the ban is removed, states would regain authority to ban them. • grant private-sector employees whistleblower protections, which means more hazards will be reported to the CPSC. • require establishment of a public CPSC database of potential hazards. • require that choking hazards be disclosed in Internet advertising. In addition, the law’s new third party testing requirement does not include an additional new layer of preemption that the toy industry had demanded for months, which would have stifled state attorney general enforcement of a critical new untested product safety reform. “Toxic chemicals like lead and phthalates have no business in our children’s toys,” said CALPIRG’s Morillas. "Representatives like Senators Feinstein and Boxer deserve tremendous credit for getting a strong bill over the finish line and signed into law." The addition of a ban on the toxic chemical phthalates is also a groundbreaking step. Thanks to the efforts of Assemblymember Fiona Ma, California paved the way for the federal government to implement this added consumer protection. # # # CALPIRG takes on powerful interests on behalf of its members, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/president-signs-landmark-consumer-product-safety-act Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:48:36 -0500 http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/dangerous-product-recalls-increased-22-over-last-year CALPIRG Consumer Federation of America * Consumers Union* Kids In Danger * Public Citizen* National Research Center for Women & Families For Immediate Release: Wednesday 23 July 2008 Contact: Pedro Morillas, CALPIRG (805) 234-5612 Rachel Weintraub, CFA (202) 387-6121 Ami Gadhia, Consumers Union (202) 462-6262 David Arkush, Public Citizen (202) 550-0107 Nancy Cowles, Kids In Danger (312) 218-5593 Paul Brown, NRCWF (202) 223-4000 x103 Dangerous Product Recalls Increased 22% Over Last Year Leading Consumer Groups Urge Congress To Enact Strong Reforms Before Recess The number of recalls of toys and children’s products is up 22% over the first half of last year, despite industry promises last year to solve the problems that made 2007 the “year of the recall,” according to an analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission data by the nation’s leading consumer groups. The groups urged Congress to complete a “strong CPSC Reform Act” before the August recess. 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 Pedro Morillas CALPIRG Consumer Advocate 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. “Unwise industry demands for preemption of a new, unproven third party testing regime threaten to take state attorneys general, often the best consumer cops, off the product safety beat,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch. 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.” In June, conferees met and approved 21 generally non-controversial items. Last week, conferees approved nine more, including the establishment of the product safety database. In addition to the above remaining items, the groups also believe that a pending All-Terrain-Vehicle (ATV) amendment being proposed by the Senate must be improved if it is to be included in the final law. Other remaining items, such as negotiating the length in years of the CPSC reauthorization and its maximum budget authorization, are expected to be resolved favorably to consumers and safety. The groups’ other remaining concern is that final action be taken before the August recess, since the agenda for fall sessions of the Congress remains uncertain. “We can’t wait for more evidence of a broken product safety system, more recalls, or more potentially dangerous products ending up in our children’s hands and mouths. Congress must protect our tiniest and most vulnerable consumers,” concluded Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel for Consumer Federation of America. “The time to finish is now, before Congress goes home for August recess.” -30- CALPIRG (calpirg.org) – the California Public Interest Research Group, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that takes on powerful interests on behalf of its members. For 22 years, CALPIRG and other PIRGs around the country have released the annual Trouble In Toyland report, which has resulted in over 125 known CPSC toy recalls, including the recalls of over one million toys containing dangerous magnets in 2008 alone. For more information on the other non-profit, non-partisan consumer and public health organizations that released this report, please visit their websites: 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). http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/dangerous-product-recalls-increased-22-over-last-year Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:02:21 -0500 http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/bill-to-ban-lead-in-childrens-products-passes-assembly-health-committee-today Today AB 2694, the nation’s toughest ban on lead in children’s products, passed out of the Assembly Health Committee and heads to the Assembly Floor. The bill is authored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and sponsored by CALPIRG and Environment California. As recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, AB 2694 would ban on lead in all products intended for children age twelve and under, using a 40ppm standard. “We’ve known for more than a generation that lead exposure results in significant harm to children’s health, and yet current law still allows for unsafe levels of lead in toys. This bill would follow the doctors’ orders, and ban lead in all children’s products,” said Emily Rusch, CALPIRG Advocate. http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/bill-to-ban-lead-in-childrens-products-passes-assembly-health-committee-today Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:44:02 -0500 http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/congress-sends-historic-product-safety-reform-to-presidents-desk CALPIRG APPLAUDS SENATE PASSAGE OF COMPREHENSIVE CPSC REFORM, URGES SWIFT NEGOTIATIONS WITH HOUSE Sacramento, CA—CALPIRG, a leading California consumer group that has published annual toy safety surveys for over twenty years today applauded U.S. Senate passage of comprehensive legislation to “give the CPSC the money and authority” it needs to protect the public from dangerous products.” “The Senate soundly defeated several special interest weakening amendments requested by the manufacturers of the toys and products that made 2007 the year of the recall,” said Pedro Morillas, spokesperson for CALPIRG. “There is broad support for final passage of safety legislation that protects the public, not special interests.” The bi-partisan Senate CPSC Reform Act, S. 2663, sponsored by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others, now heads to a conference committee to reconcile differences with the companion legislation, HR 4040 (Reps. Bobby Rush (D-IL), John Dingell (D-MI), Joe Barton (R-TX) and others) passed by the House in December. Among the highlights of the Senate bill: - It increases the CPSC budget over 7 years from last year’s $64 million to $155 million in 2015 and gives state attorneys general broad authority to enforce the federal law. - It establishes a public right-to-know database of complaints and injury reports at the CPSC. - It gives the CPSC broader jurisdiction over toys not currently regulated, including the dangerous small magnets that have killed one little boy and sent dozens of others to emergency surgery. - It bans toxic lead in children’s products except at trace levels. - It protects product safety whistleblowers from retaliation. “While several of these provisions make the Senate bill more comprehensive than the House bill, which we called a good first step when it passed, we intend to make sure that the final law signed by the President includes the best elements of each bill, including the House’s better definition of children’s product as intended for children under 12, not 7 years of age, as the Senate would require,” added Morillas. [During debate on the Senate floor, a number of weakening amendments were offered, including an amendment by Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) to simply substitute the narrower, industry-supported House bill and one by Senator Jon Cornyn (R-TX) to weaken authority of state attorneys general. Both amendments were defeated. “We also want to commend Senators Boxer and Feinstein for their critical leadership in co-sponsoring and helping to move this bill.” Among the organizations joining CALPIRG in support of the Senate bill are Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned Scientists. “If we are going to protect children and the public from the growing number of shoddy, imported toys coming onto our shores and into our stores each year, we need a bigger, better CPSC backstopped by 50 state attorneys general,” Morillas concluded. “It’s time for Congress and the President to finish the job of tightening our toy safety net.” -30- http://www.calpirg.org/news-releases/food-safety/food-safety-news/congress-sends-historic-product-safety-reform-to-presidents-desk Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:06:34 -0600