Last month, Congress passed and the President signed major legislation strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Washington Postâs Annys Shin described it this way: The measure ⦠represents the most significant expansion of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) since it was created in 1973. It also marks a fundamental shift in the federal […]
The winners of the 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday, and reporting on veteransâ care and on drug and product safety scored top honors in the journalism category: The Public Service prize went âto the Washington Post for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille in exposing mistreatment of […]
On Thursday, the Senate approved legislation that will boost funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, increase the agencyâs enforcement power, and effectively ban lead in all childrenâs products. The House bill passed in December contained similar provisions, although that chamber raised the maximum fine for companies that fail to report product hazards immediately to […]
As the recent problems with tainted food, drugs, toys, and other consumer products have made clear, our regulatory system has a lot of holes in it. Part of the problem is the current reluctance of agency appointees to do anything that might burden the industries in question, but thatâs not the whole story. Itâs also […]
Weâve written before about how the Consumer Product Safety Commission lacks both the authority and the will to come down hard on companies that keep their unsafe products on the market. Now, Public Citizen has tallied up the time that elapsed between the dates when the CPSC learned of several dangerous products and the dates […]
UPDATED BELOW Annys Shin of the Washington Post has reported that Dr. Gail Charnley, a well-known corporate product defense expert, is the White Houseâs leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Weâve written extensively here about this beleaguered agency. Finally, after the nation watched helplessly at the recall of millions of […]
Congress left town last month without passing legislation that would overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose weakness has been apparent in recent problems with toys containing lead, dangerous magnets, and a chemical that metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. They did pass a ban on industry-sponsored travel (after the Washington Post reported […]
Consumer Product Safety Commission
As If Taking Down Your Christmas Tree Wasnât Depressing Enough ⦠Now You Can Worry About Lead!
In all the rigmarole of the holiday season, you might not have heard about the consumer safety hazard associated with Christmas lights (or noticed the fine print warnings on their boxes). Itâs no secret that lead is used in light stringsâ polyvinyl chloride insulation to prevent deterioration and to guard against fire. But what is […]
Once again, toys are turning up with high lead levels â and, once again, it was an advocacy group, rather than the Consumer Product Safety Commission, that did the tests and broke the news. The nonprofit Ecology Center, working with other groups across the country, bought and tested 1,268 childrenâs products, and found that 35 […]
Elizabeth Williamson of the Washington Post has written powerful article on the failure of the regulatory system to ensure that amusement park âthrillâ rides donât kill or injure customers, primarily teenagers and children. She provides grisly detail on a topic weâve talked about here before: the inability and/or unwillingness of the Consumer Product Safety Commission […]