WP: Unsafe Products Reaching Retail Shelves, Consumer Reports Says

[DeepModem Mom]

Unsafe Products Reaching Retail Shelves, Consumer Reports Says

By Caroline E. Mayer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 5, 2004; Page E01


Dozens of dangerous products that violate federal safety standards are finding their way onto retail shelves, while hundreds of other recalled items banned for sale in the United States are being shipped to shoppers abroad, according to an investigation by Consumer Reports magazine.

After an in-depth study of a decade of government product safety records, and shopping at more than a dozen stores, the magazine concluded that weak laws and lax enforcement are allowing some manufacturers and importers to ignore federal and voluntary industry safety standards....

***

The magazine faulted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for the continued sale of unsafe products both here and abroad. Citing a steep erosion in the agency's budget and staff, it said the agency was inadequately and inconsistently enforcing federal safety laws and policing store shelves.

The result, Consumer Reports concluded, is that consumers are buying many "potentially lethal products," including defective extension cords and electrical items that can overheat and burn; fake ground-fault circuit interrupter plugs that don't always trip when there is an electrical overload; toys that can choke, cut or poison young children; counterfeit batteries that leak acid, overheat or spark; and disposable lighters that leak fuel or explode. Many of these goods are fraudulently labeled, counterfeits to well-known and well-regarded brand-name items.

The magazine said that the CPSC's number of recalls, detained shipments and other enforcement actions were down 35 percent in 2003 from 2001....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7024-2004Oct4.html

[demnan]

1. So Bush is supposed to be the one making us safer?

n/t

[mbperrin]

2. So who's surprised? The Repubs have been running

since Reagan on getting the "gummint" out of our lives. Whatja think? Halliburton was gonna make us safer?

[DeepModem Mom]

3. There are multiple stories like this each day -- if every home in America

could somehow get a list of these print-press stories from the last four years, and see clearly what the Bush cabal is doing to this country on every level, in every area, I wonder if W's support would immediately drop to that immoveable base of his --

[salin]

4. meanwhile.... TORT REFRM!

leave no consumer protected....

[lazarus]

5. the "Free Market"

I thought the free market was supposed to correct this sort of behaviour, right?

Isn't that what the free marketers and libertarians have been preaching for years? Less regulation, it'll take care of itself?

[tooncesj0nes]

6. but..Grover Norquest sez...

..we want government so small that we can drown it in the bathtub....

[seventhson]

8. he meant freedom and justice, NOT government

oops

[seventhson]

7. I was eating farm-raised fish - and then I did a google search

yikes.

Man, the prices were great on salmon, cod, tilapia.

China, Chile, Thailand had affordable delicious frozen fish.

But now I am scared to death of them.

What a crime against humanity to allow these foods (especially into inner city "welfare" groceries that sell mostly to food stamp recipients). I blame Bush for gutting our protections and lining the pockets of the BFEE cronies.


Great food. low prices.

Full of toxic waste.


Yummm.

[booksenkatz]

9. Too bad Ralph Nader is busy with "other priorities" nt

*

[DeepModem Mom]

10. That is a GOOD one, patsified!

[sam sarrha]

15. you nean like insuring that we get 4 more years of Bushshit

[gratuitous]

11. But if you sue the manufacturer

You're a no-good, scum-sucking America-hater because you want to stifle small business and its unfettered right to make a buck while killing, poisoning, burning, choking, or blowing people up.

[One_Life_To_Give]

13. Not around long enough to sue.

ALot of these op's disappear before you can even file a suit.

[One_Life_To_Give]

12. PRESS! About time some ink on this!

including defective extension cords and electrical items that can overheat and burn; fake ground-fault circuit interrupter plugs that don't always trip when there is an electrical overload;

Been a problem for many years. My house was built with some fraudulently marked light fixtures. Companies manufacturing fraudulently marked products can setup shop, manufacture for a few months and then dissolve/move the company so that prosecution is next to impossible.

[Robert Oak]

14. Almost motivated to maim

That's just crazy...
it takes nothing, in terms of quality and increased cost to make a safe circuit or electrical cord.

I mean, they aren't making any big buckos doing this so why would they?

I see so many of these stories and one would think the motivation
would be money...but if you examine the difference in costs
and profits to a safe product...it's almost non-existent....

so to me, stories like this expose the evil intent of some.

[sandnsea]

16. Trained labor

It takes quality labor to consistently meet the specs, that's what it takes. You keep getting mad at the immigrants though, while the real culprits walk away unscathed.