We all remember alarming and, too often, tragic stories of product hazards and toy recalls that demonstrated the need to strengthen protections for consumers, particularly children. In 2008, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalls have included 19,000 baby rattles that present choking hazards, 685,000 wireless helicopter toys containing batteries that can catch fire, and 91,000 horseshoe-shaped magnet toys whose coating contains high levels of lead.
Fortunately, Congress recently acted to strengthen laws governing the safety of goods entering the country and providing more resources to intercept unsafe products.
In July, the House and the Senate passed legislation to prevent dangerous consumer products – especially those intended for children – from entering the country or reaching store shelves. The bill was then signed into law by the President in August.
I was pleased to work with Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas on the bipartisan, Senate version of the bill. The final measure reflects a 2007 product-safety investigation I conducted as Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Many toys sold in American stores come from China, where some manufacturers use lead paint in violation of accepted standards. As a result of the danger posed by lead paint, particularly to children, there was a clear need to upgrade our country’s ability to ensure the safety of products we import.
The new law greatly reduces permissible levels of lead, and contains four key provisions that emerged from an in-depth investigation conducted by ourHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to improve the effectiveness of federal safety standards governing children’s toys and clothing.
We conducted numerous interviews of manufacturers’ representatives, retailers, consumer advocacy groups, and federal regulatory agencies, and visited a manufacturer’s testing lab and two ports. The findings confirmed several weaknesses in our current consumer product safety regime, namely:
• The CPSC has been under-staffed, inadequately resourced, and lacked crucial authorities needed to fulfill its mission; • Voluntary standards applicable to many classes of products can be useful in quickly addressing safety issues, but lack the full force of law; and
• The inability to effectively enforce safety standards at our ports limits our nation’s ability to stop hazardous imported products from entering the American marketplace. Customs and Border Protection officers currently have lacked the authority to seize and destroy dangerous imported products even if they suspect that an unscrupulous importer turned away at one port might attempt to bring these products in through another U.S port.
The Committee’s investigation also revealed that coordination and information sharing between CBP and CPSC often failed to provide useful data to target the shipments most likely to contain dangerous goods.
The provisions I included in the legislation as a result of this investigation target unsafe imports. CBP will be authorized to seize and destroy dangerous consumer products entering our ports, long before they reach store shelves or American homes. Better information sharing between CPSC and CBP will be required so that inspectors at our nation’s ports can focus their resource on the most risky shipments, targeting products, manufacturers, and importers with poor consumer-safety records. In addition, the CPSC will develop a comprehensive risk assessment tool to evaluate imported products that might violate our nation’s safety standards, and the Commission will also develop a plan to assign staff to the National Targeting Center at CBP.
These provisions will help the CPSC and Customs and Border Protection identify dangerous products that enter our ports and prevent them from reaching American homes.
Other measures in the law – increased staffing and funding for the CPSC, tougher civil and criminal penalties for violations of safety laws, a ban on reselling recalled products, enhanced whistleblower protections, safety certifications, and product tracking labels – will also strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s ability to protect American consumers.
This new law will make a real difference in protecting America’s children and other consumers from hazardous toys and other products. It is good legislation – and an example of the bipartisan action that Congress should be taking on other matters as well.