The Bush Assministration JUST RUINED ME!

[Bennyboy]

My family is in the tile and grout care and sealing business. We have franchises all over the country, About 150 in all. Two years ago, we switched to a product to seal tile grout.

Some background: Back in 1995, we were sued for using a toxic sealer (the odor)by one of our customers. In reality, the sealer manufacturer made the warning label for their product too restrictive to avoid liablity. One of our frenchisees did not follow those directions to the letter,and one of their customers bacame sick (immediatly after reading the label and realizing the instructions wre not being followed). At the time, our franchisees had done thousands and thousands of jobs with this sealer and no one ever became sick or anything.

We finally settled for a large sum of money. Of course this person stopped having symptoms immmediatly after settling the lawsuit.

The manufacturer switched to using a water based (instead of solvent based) that was not nearly as effective due to this lawsuit. So we switched to the same sealer as before, but from s different company that did not have as restrictive labeling. No problems. Millions of people used this sealer (like the one before) and never a problem. NOTE: All of the sealers mentioned are available at Home Depot, Lowe's and Most Tile shops)

About two years ago, the manufacturere changed the formula. The odor was too much to deal with and made the job impossible to do with the home owner in the home.

So we switched. We tested (job site and laboratory) many different sealers and found an odorless, water based sealer that did the trick.

And now, there has been a recall of this product. No one in our company was notified. Many people have become sick (so far none in our company or our customers). They left the product on the shelves. While they knew this product was harming people.

Today I read about this on buzzflash.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/washington/08consumer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Can you imagine the number of our customers that are going to become sick after reading about this?

Can you imagine the number of Franchisees that are going to become sick after reading this (and I have sent this info to everyone in our system today to inform them to stop using this product).

This is going to get really ugly.

And seeing how the manufacturer is from China I have no recourse. even in the previous case, i was able to work with the manufacturer and they paid half of the settlement.

[gmoney]

1. As eager as I am to blame Bush for anything, what's the connection?

Just the general lack of oversight of product safety and enforcement of the recall? Or that nobody outside of China made a suitable product?

But sorry to hear you're in this position... I hate how nothing just WORKS the way its supposed to anymore without killing you in the process.

[Bennyboy]

3. The lack of oversight......

They have stripped consumer safety safeguards and due to that, they left the product on the shelves long after people stated becoming sick. it is always business first and people never with them.

[Kali]

2. not exactly sure how it is the boosh admins fault?

And you are doing all that you can. Don't see how a case could be made against you??? That based on your post - OK I will read the article now.

[Bennyboy]

4. From the article.....

Dr. Friedel was the latest victim of a product whose dangers had become known months earlier to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the companies that made and sold it. Before Dr. Friedel bought Stand ’n Seal, at least 80 people had been sickened using it, two of them fatally.

But even then, with the threat well-documented, the manufacturer, retailer and the commission had failed to remove the hazard from the shelves.

The task of getting dangerous products out of consumers’ reach is perhaps the most pressing challenge the Consumer Product Safety Commission faces in this era of surging recalls, particularly of products from China. It is an essential part of the agency’s mission, because premarket testing is not required for consumer products in the United States.

[Kali]

6. ok sloppy, unfunded bureaucracy = boosh at fault, but again not sure how you are

liable?

[DS1]

5. Sounds like they should go after Home Depot

and you should too, if your own people are getting sick

[Bennyboy]

7. Our customers will go after our company,

and Home Depot. There is no chance in hell I will be able to go after HD, they have unlimited $$$$ and I don't.

[Kali]

8. they should go after the manufacturer and the agency that didn't do its job

I agree, bennyboy's co. should go after them too.