Consumer Product Safety Commission Has ONE Employee Testing Defective Toys

[orleans]

FAMILY VALUES MY ASS!

i saw dick durbin on lou dobbs talking about the Consumer Product Safety Commission and they showed a picture of this "lab" where our children's toys are checked for hazards, lead, etc.

it was a workbench piled high with junk--where you couldn't find anything if you had to--and this is where we check the toys/products?? and these toys are being inspected by a SINGLE EMPLOYEE!

it was beyond disgraceful.

On Sunday, Sept. 2, The New York Times noted that top officials at the Consumer Product Safety Commission have “blocked enforcement actions, weakened industry oversight rules and promoted voluntary compliance over safety mandates, according to interviews with current and former senior agency officials and consumer groups and a review of commission documents.” For example, the story says, the agency has only a handful of agency inspectors looking for hazardous cargo before it enters the country and only a single employee responsible for testing suspected defective toys. “Safety initiatives have been stalled or dropped after dozens of jobs were eliminated in budget cutbacks.”
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2007/09/in-the-news-pro.html?EXTKEY=I72RSSB

Answers? Not for All the Lead in China.

By Dana Milbank
Thursday, September 13, 2007; Page A02

Lawmakers had just begun to question Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about all that lead showing up in children's toys. Her fellow commissioner Thomas Moore rose from the witness table to depart -- for a dental appointment.

"Are you leaving?" a surprised Nord asked, pausing in her testimony. "Can I come with you?"

"You're facing your own dentist here," pointed out Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

"It's a sad day," Nord replied, "when you'd rather go to the dentist."

Actually, the lawmakers' drilling of Nord made it sound as if every day is a sad one for her agency. Product safety regulators, broke and undermanned, have been powerless to prevent millions of Barbie dolls, Polly Pockets, Dora the Explorers and Thomas the Tank Engines from entering the country from China with lead paint and other defects. Parents -- and therefore lawmakers -- are furious. But instead of showing contrition, Nord treated the lawmakers as if they were impertinent children.

"Are you saying that the Chinese have now adopted a new and different standard when it comes to lead paint?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the panel examining the issue.

"I think, sir, that that's a question you would really need to put to the Chinese," Nord replied curtly.

Durbin, with some of the offending toys on the table in front of him, asked why the commission didn't do more to block lead in children's jewelry.

"Well, the law is what it is" was Nord's brushoff.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked Nord if she knew what percentage of toys get lead tests.

"No, I don't."

After much hemming and hawing from Nord about her agency's ability to stop dangerous toys coming from China, Brownback got cranky: "Chairman, what I want to hear is you say these products are not going to enter our shores if that's what you continue to find."

"Well, I'm happy to say that," Nord retorted.

While dismissive of the senators, the acting chairman was solicitous of the manufacturers. She "commended" the industry for its safety initiatives. A toy manufacturer reciprocated, calling Nord's agency "exemplary."

If Nord sounded a bit like a corporate fox guarding the consumer henhouse, consider her previous employers: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Corporate Counsel Association and Eastman Kodak.

Among the nuggets served up at yesterday's hearing: The CPSC's staff, once 978, is down to 401; its budget is half of what it was three decades ago, in inflation-adjusted terms; its toy-testing department consists of one man, Bob, who drops toys on the floor in his office; and its toy-testing lab is an overloaded workbench in its outmoded headquarters. "We believe the agency's leadership has failed," Sally Greenberg of Consumers Union told the panel.

These shortcomings usually wouldn't command much notice, but that changed when children's toys became deadly.

Durbin began the hearing by talking about a toy called Magnetix. "I had bought it for my grandson," the senator said. "Luckily, he's old enough not to be in danger."

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) held up a poster of colorful toys. "They have a Laugh and Learn Bunny that has a nose that comes off," he remarked. "Then, of course, you've got Thomas the train. . . . And then you have these Barbie accessories, again, with lead paint."

Klobuchar did Nelson one better: She brought two toy rail cars. "My daughter's 12," the senator said, and "she didn't care about SpongeBob," Klobuchar confessed. "But when she heard that the Barbies were recalled, she came into the kitchen and said, 'Mom, this is really getting serious.' "

"Please tell Abigail we're going to do our best to make Barbie safe," Durbin reassured her.

The toy industry representatives shrewdly supplemented their written testimony with similar tales of children. "I'm here today as the CEO of Mattel, but also as a dad," announced Bob Eckert. "My three daughters grew up playing with Barbies and American Girl. My son loved his Hot Wheels."

But Nord made no such attempt to ingratiate herself.

Eight times, Durbin asked whether the Chinese, in an agreement Nord reached with them, had changed their policy on lead. Each time, she rebuffed him, usually with a variation of "You will have to ask the Chinese."

After two rounds of questioning, Durbin gave up. "I will ask the Chinese," he said, mockingly.

Brownback got a similar response when he asked Nord, five times, if she would like her agency to have the authority to inspect Chinese manufacturing plants. Each time, she answered with a version of a non sequitur: "We don't have that authority."

"Madam Chairman, you're hearing from us a great deal of frustration," Brownback informed the reluctant witness. "Now we're looking at China selling us defective, unsafe products, and we don't know what's going on in the factory. And we're not even sure, from what you're saying, if they have any level of concern on lead."

"Sir, may I respond to that?" Nord asked when Brownback finished.

"I'd be delighted if you would," the dentist answered, wearily.

"I so appreciate hearing your sentiments," said the patient.

Somebody must have turned on the nitrous oxide.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202396.html?hpid=moreheadlines

the flippant bitch who could give a rats ass about protecting our kids

"Nancy A. Nord was nominated by President George W. Bush to be a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for a term that expires in October of 2012. The CPSC protects the public against unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. She was confirmed by the Senate for that position on April 29, 2005 and was sworn into office on May 5, 2005.

"Ms. Nord has held a number of legal positions both in the federal government and in the private sector. Her federal experience includes service as General Counsel of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, counsel to the Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and attorney at the Federal Communications Commission. In the private sector, she was the Director of Federal Affairs for the Eastman Kodak Company, practiced law with the Washington, DC law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, served as the executive director of the American Corporate Counsel Association and was Director of Consumer Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"Ms. Nord is married to the Honorable James S. Halpern, a judge on the U.S. Tax Court and the mother of one daughter. She resides in Washington, DC.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/bios/nord.html

[orleans]

1. P.S.

transcript from dobb's show

"And anger and frustration in the first Congressional hearing on the safety of Chinese toy imports. The lawmaker who chaired that hearing, Dick Durbin, is our guest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PILGRIM: Alarming testimony on Capitol Hill today about serious failures in product safety. Now, Senators demanded answers and change from toy makers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, retailers and Communist China.

Christine Romans has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the course of three hours on Capitol Hill, a litany of safety failures. It is not illegal to sell recalled toys. Fines are too small to be a deterrent. The acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission couldn't say what percentage of imported toys is even inspected. She tangled with Senators over whether her agency has been aggressive enough.

NANCY NORD, CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION: Our very tiny agency has been trying to work aggressively within our statutory constraints and within our resource constraints.

ROMANS: And there are concerns that safety promises have not been kept.

THOMAS MOORE, CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION: In August of '98, the toy manufacturers of America pledged to eliminate lead from their products. Yet, here we are nearly 10 years later, facing the same problems.

ROMANS: Even the world's largest toy maker, with a reputation for safety, admits it couldn't control its Chinese supply chain.

ROBERT ECKERT, CEO, MATTEL: Our systems were circumvented and our standards were violated. We were let down and we let you down.

ROMANS: Mattel says 65 percent of its toys are made in China. Toys"R"Us' CEO says 75 to 80 percent of the dolls, trains and action figures it sells are made in China. Both companies laid out strategies for protecting consumers.

But Senator Sam Brownback said manufacturers are asking for trouble by concentrating so much production in China -- a developing economy with lower standards.

ECKERT: We impose our standards regardless of what someone else does.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: But it didn't work.

ECKERT: Well, in the case of -- you're speaking specifically to lead paint testing...

BROWNBACK: Yes.

ECKERT: We didn't test sufficiently to test catch that product.

ROMANS: Still, the industry strongly defended its record and its Chinese suppliers.

CARTER KEITHLEY, PRESIDENT, TOY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: Toy-related injuries in the U.S. are extremely rare. Our proposals are not specific to toys made in any particular area of the world.

ROMANS: Yet hundreds of millions of dollars of toys have been recalled just in the past few months.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ROMANS: Sally Greenberg from the Consumers Union testified toy manufacturers have been too trusting of their Chinese suppliers. She says that is dangerous in a country with no free press, endemic corruption and no real regulatory framework -- Kitty.

PILGRIM: These lapses in toy safety are indefensible any way you look at it.

Thanks very much.

Christine Romans.

That brings us to the subject of tonight's poll -- who do you believe is responsible for the safety of U.S. toys, the U.S. government, American toy companies, Chinese manufacturers?

Cast your vote at loudobbs.com.

We'll bring you the results a little bit later in the broadcast.

Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired today's hearing on toy safety, joined me earlier. And I asked him if bureaucracy, incompetence, lack of responsibility on the part of our government agencies are making the problem worse.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: I was really disappointed with the answers to the questions that I asked of Chairman Nord at the Consumer Products Safety Commission. They were very specific about the standards of safety that we're expecting from the Chinese.

You know, we know that this agency has been notoriously understaffed. It doesn't have the resources, the laboratory, even the building that they need. But equally important, they need leadership from the commission, where people are aggressively setting out to protect American families and consumers. I didn't see that today.

PILGRIM: You know, speaking of the laboratory, you asked Ms. Nord to describe the conditions. The CPSC laboratory is in utter disarray.

Do you think that they're capable of keeping American consumers safe with this kind of a chaotic situation in their labs?

DURBIN: I can just tell you that what they call a laboratory wouldn't pass any high school laboratory test. It is basically a work table with toys stacked up on it. One man -- one person has a responsibility for the safety of all the toys imported into the United States of America -- trillions of dollars worth of products.

And the bottom line is this agency has not been well funded. It has not been taken seriously. And, sadly, it's been populated by a lot of people who want to look the other way when we run into these safety issues.

PILGRIM: You know, I was also struck by Mr. Eckert's testimony, the head of Mattel. And he acknowledged a few of their vendors violated the rules. That seems like a gross understatement, given the magnitude of the recalls that have gone on.

DURBIN: Well, I'll say this about the toy industry and toy retailers. I've been encouraged by the response. You know, it is not uncommon to run into corporate denial, a kind of a defensive posture, tossing around phrases like "junk science" and dismissing the charges.

The toy industry and the toy retailers have taken the opposite approach. They've accepted the challenge and they know they have to, because American families and consumers need to have a dose of confidence before they are going to turn around and buy toys for this holiday season.

PILGRIM: We certainly applaud your efforts in holding these hearings. But it really is very glaringly obvious to the American public that lead has been banned in toys for 30 years and yet it's still turning up in American-produced toys.

How is that defensible, by any toy maker?

DURBIN: It's indefensible. For 30 years, we've have banned lead, and yet we still find it, primarily in products coming out of China. And I have to say, it isn't because lead paint is cheaper in China, it's because their workers are paid so little.

There are no environmental standards. There are very few government inspectors. And so as a result, you may get a cheaper toy, but it's going to be made under conditions which most American families wouldn't want to see.

PILGRIM: Senators Pryor and Klobuchar today have suggested perhaps legislation banning lead. But we already have rules in effect.

So would this do anything different? DURBIN: It's almost impossible to ban all lead. But I think establishing federal standards -- strict standards -- is a step in the right direction. And Senator Pryor of Arkansas is moving toward a reauthorization of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. We need to put some teeth, some bark and some bite in this agency, as Sally Greenberg at Consumers Union said.

We have to give them the authority and the tools and then demand the people to enforce the law.

PILGRIM: We have also been talking with officials in China. And the head of China's consumer product safety agency today vowed that the toys made in China will be safe in the Christmas season. We're so close to the Christmas season, some of these toys, presumably, have been manufactured already.

Do you think that the toys from China will be safe this Christmas season?

DURBIN: I can tell you that it's a misleading statement for the Chinese to say that, because the toys that we're likely to see on shelves in this holiday season were made a long time ago. They're sitting in warehouses and on ships. They're on their way to the stores.

What we need to do is to be honest about the toys on the shelves. And that means that the companies, the toy stores, as well as the manufacturers, have to accept the responsibility for testing. They've got to convince American consumers these toys are safe for their kids.

And, unfortunately, they do it in a climate of suspicion.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much for being with us today, Senator Durbin.

Thank you, sir.

DURBIN: Thank you, Kitty.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0709/12/ldt.01.html

[gateley]

2. K&R - I'm speechless. nt

[Sherman A1]

3. The results of the Lou Dobbs Poll on toy safety responsibility

from last night's show pretty much puts the blame in the lap of the toy manufacturer (where I believe it truly belongs). Of course we need more funding for the CPSC and we need stiffer laws and more testing, but it is Mattel's (or whoever product) with their name on it.

Who is responsible for the safety of U.S. toys?
U.S. Government 36% 2514
American Toy Companies 60% 4190
Chinese Manufacturers 4% 272
Total Votes: 6976
This is not a scientific poll

Toy (and other product issues) are a direct result of the Wal Martization of our country. In the quest for cheaper and cheaper pieces of plastic junk we now suffer this self inflicted wound. Manufacturers are forced to cut their costs and eventually move their lines to seek cheaper labor (although I am sure that CEO greed plays a big part), so we lose jobs, we lose safety regulatory capability and we just have to trust that the market place will take care of it. This is of course complete non-sense, but that is where we are at.

Time to write your congress critters and let them know that you have had enough of this nonsense

Time to write Mattel and let them know you won't be buying their products in the near future (gosh, Christmas shopping is just around the corner.... oops bad timing Mattel, let's see how that market place thing is workin' out for ya).

Time to not shop at Wal Mart and avoid Chinese made products whenever possible.

:rant:

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

4. K&R

What's made in China, Stays in China.

[Quantess]

6. Oh yeah? I wish.

Lead paint is prettier and allows brighter colors. That's the bottom line.

Slow (lead poisoned kids) like bright colors, too!

[Vinca]

5. I find it curious that no one ever suggests we return the manufacturing

of toys to the United States so we can keep a closer eye on the process. The media shouldn't refer to Mattel as a toy "manufacturer" either. They're a toy/lead distributor.

[orleans]

7. that's true. mattel is a toy distributor. when WAS the last time matel

actually made a toy i wonder.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Hey, if it gets in the way of capitalistic ventures, it's unAmerican.

Get it?

[followthemoney]

9. Keep on loading the mule until it stumbles. That keeps wages down

and profits up. Plus, it is so easy for the simple minded to find that scapegoat that every disaster needs to protect the economic royalists. It is the American way. It is the way America wants it.

And by America, I mean the economic royalists who form the ruling class on this continent. The ones who ruled that only one person is sufficient to protect the rabble. The ones who call the lead poisoned masses Un-American for their opposition to the ruling class disregard for their health.

[orleans]

10. and then shoot the mule? n/t