Sign petition and send your child's picture to Congress for a strong, safe toy bill

U.S. PIRG is leading a campaign to bring a toy safety bill that has passed both houses of congress to the next step, a joint conference. Very good provisions are included in both the US House (bill H.R.4040) and Senate (bill S.2045) versions; we need to see that Congress passes a final bill that gives the president the best features from both.

This campaign features both a citizens' petition, and a photo collage of our own children that we can upload to the campaign webpage. Please go to U.S. PIRG's toy safety campaign webpage now; here is the text of the petition:

Here’s a picture of my child. Congress should give him/her and millions of
other children the strongest protection possible from dangerous toys. We urge
you to take the strongest parts of both the House and Senate CPSC reform bills
as you prepare a final law for the President’s signature before Father’s Day.
Any final law should protect children up to 12 years old, as the House bill
would provide. It should require third-party testing for hazards of all consumer
products, including toys, as the Senate bill would provide. It should ban toxic
lead at the lowest level possible and include the Senate’s provision banning
toxic phthalate chemicals. On other provisions, children deserve the best of
both bills.

Thank you

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Tell your US Senators to vote FOR Consumer Product Safety Reform Act of 2007

Public Citizen wants us to tell our US Senators to vote FOR on a bill to reform the Consumer Protect Safety Commission (CPSC) - and protect us from defective and dangerous products. They are expect to vote on it next week. If you are having difficulties with the webpage, or would like to call them instead, the Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

Although the Consumer Product Safety Reform Act of 2007 (S. 2663) will give the CPSC much-needed muscle, it could be stronger than it is. For example, the maximum fine for violating the Act has been reduced from $100 million to $10 million, or $20 million in "aggravated" circumstances, a pittance for multibillion-dollar corporations. However, the current bill makes valuable improvements over current law that must be defended.

TAKE ACTION: Urge your senators to vote FOR the Consumer Product Safety bill and strong, consumer-friendly amendments and AGAINST amendments that put industry interests before consumers! Thank you

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Consumer Product Safety Commission unresponsive to dangerous and defective company product reports

Public Citizen has released a report on the lax public notifications of product defects by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission). This is yet another example of an administration that has politicized its public service. Based upon similar backass services from a host of Executive branch agencies, I must assume that politicization is endemic throughout the system under Bush's watch.

Here is Public Citizen's description of its newest report on consumer product safety issues and the federal government:

U.S. Consumer Protection Officials Wait Months to Notify Public of Dangerous, Defective Products, Public Citizen Study Finds

Despite a law requiring manufacturers to provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) with “immediate” notification of dangerous products, the agency typically delays nearly seven months after learning of dangerous, defective products before telling the public. A new Public Citizen study, Hazardous Waits: CPSC Lets Crucial Time Pass Before Warning Public About Dangerous Products, reveals that companies fined for tardy reporting took an average of 993 days – 2.7 years – between learning of a safety defect in their products and notifying the CPSC. Perhaps as shocking, the CPSC then took an average of 209 additional days before disclosing the information to the public – even though each case concerned a product defect so dangerous that the item was recalled.

• Read the press release
• Read the report
• Read a summary of the differences between the House and Senate versions of the Consumer Product Safety Reform/Modernization Act
• Read an in-depth comparison of the House and Senate bill

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Tell your Senators to RECALL Nancy Nord of the CPSC

Public Citizen has issued a netroots alert for the recall ("firing") of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) interim Chairwoman Nancy Nord. I am much too happy to support this campaign, as Nord is totally blind to the ethical breeches she has committed already in her "leadership" role. Here is more alert information from Public Citizen; if you agree, please take action from this website or send your message on your own to your two US Senators:

While parents were in panic over the lead paint on their children's toys (like "Robot 2000"), what was the head of the government agency in charge of protecting us doing? Traveling - on the dime of the very industries she is supposed to be regulating.
Nancy Nord, the interim Chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), has not shied away from that fact that she accepts lavish trips from the industries she regulates and even claims that it is perfectly ethical.
The CPSC is charged with monitoring thousands of products that we use everyday, including toys, but has been systematically gutted by lack of funding and industry-friendly political appointees. A proposed bill, the CPSC Reform Act of 2007, would help fix that. It would more than double the agency's funding, give it new powers to punish those who sell dangerous products, and offer protection to government whistleblowers who courageously report wrongdoing within the agency.
Guess who isn't a fan?
Nord. She is also opposed to a bill that would make her agency more effective and better protect consumers from dangerous products. Could her position having anything to do with a recent free trip to New Orleans? Or maybe she is just more interested in protecting industry profits than consumers.
You can tell your senators to "RECALL" Nancy Nord and to PASS the CPSC Reform Action of 2007 with additional ethics reforms to prevent staff from accepting industry-sponsored travel.
Posted by Daniel De Bonis on November 09, 2007 at 05:48 PM

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Encourage good business and dismantle the CPSC federal agency!

President Bush has chosen a chair for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC): Michael Baroody, Executive Vice President for the National Association of Manufacturers; the Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for him as early as the first week of May. Mr. Baroody has a history of relaxing product hazard notices to the very consumers he does business with.

Why would our Chief Executive Officer choose someone who hates to notify the public about even minor safety concerns? I graduated with a degree in management, and I can tell you it's not good business to harm your customers-- if your product is defective, you should immediately notify it's owners, apologize profusely for the carelessness, and offer a replacement free of charge. We shouldn't have a CPSC anyway, because a company is fully responsible for the products/services it provides.

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