House subcommittee grills safety advocates

At yesterday's hearing to begin the dismantling of the 2008 safety law which includes key provisions on juvenile product safety named for Danny Keysar, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade seemed unwilling to consider that their "wrecking ball" approach (as noted by Representative Waxman (CA-30)) might be unwise. Most of the questioning was reserved for the few safety advocates and its intent seemed more to score points than learn helpful information to construct a narrow approach to give flexibility rather than gut safety provisions. It appears that if we hope to keep safety laws intact, with minor adjustments to address concerns raised by handmade and very small toymakers, this might not be the committee to do that. However, Chairman Bono Mack did indicate a willingness to work with Congressman Jan Schakowsky (IL-9) on cribs and other juvenile product safety issues. We'll continue to hope!

This morning, a House Committee looks at gutting CPSIA

This morning in Washington, DC, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade is holding a hearing on proposed changes to the landmark Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Hearing from three panels, mostly of industry representatives, the subcommittee will look at far reaching changes including changing the requirement that all children's products should be lead-free, eliminating independent testing for most children's products and allowing cribs that could be unsafe to remain in child care facilities.

We'll have an update after the hearing, but were reassured that at least the majority of the commissioners at CPSC still support strong safety measures. Read their analysis of the legislation here and Rachel Weintraub's testimony here. Rachel is with the Consumer Federation of America and a past KID's Best Friend honoree -- you can see why!

Proposal before House Committee will gut the Danny Keysar Act and leave children vulnerable

In 2008, parents of children injured or killed by unsafe juvenile products rejoiced when the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act was included in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and signed into law. This portion of the CPSIA assured parents that:

• For the first time, cribs, strollers, high chairs and other juvenile products had to be independently tested for safety before we brought them into our homes to use with our children.
• Strong new standards would be adopted for juvenile products that would assure that the required testing would find potential flaws and make sure the products were safe for use.
• Child care facilities and other public accommodations could only offer children safe cribs that met federal standards.
• Parents would be given the opportunity to register their products with the manufacturer either through a postage paid card or online – making sure they would learn of recalls.

Well, fill out those product registration cards – you’re going to need them! The new House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing wants to strip most of those protections – just like they stripped the words ‘Consumer Protection’ from their subcommittee name – it’s not like they didn’t warn us!

In addition to many other onerous changes that reduce the safety of all products you and your children use, here are the specific changes that affect infant and toddler durable products:

• Strips the requirement for independent testing from all infant and toddler products, except for testing cribs to the old standards that eliminated gaps between slats, but little else. But that stroller, high chair or carrier? Your child will again be the test dummy for safety. Companies may say they employ their own testing, but we saw where that got us with the 10 million cribs recalled in the last four years and dozens of deaths each year in nursery products.
• First, the proposed change says that child care providers have to replace their old cribs that don’t meet the standard – but just this once. In the future, if the standard changes, the facilities can keep using their cribs, only moving up to cribs that meet the new standard when they replace them. We understand this rule – after all, some centers will only be getting their new cribs in late 2012 when there might already be a few changes to the standard – making it a ridiculous exercise in trying to keep up. BUT, the next proposed change, combined with this commonsense change, will basically mean that your child care can keep on using any old crib they want – as long as it doesn’t have a drop-side. Read on…
• The next proposed change says that if a child care facility is using fixed sided cribs (no drop-sides), they don’t have to comply with the new law that requires all cribs in child care to meet the new standard by 2013. So if a center is using an old crib, that we know is unsafe – it has corner posts that have hung children, it has cut-outs that have caused strangulation, or it is simply too old and rickety – they get to keep using that crib! And since they don’t have to comply with the next revision of the standard, they can keep using it forever! They do provide that the facility has to be subject to regulations that require them to stay in the room with the infant, not leave an awake baby in a crib and move all babies out of cribs at 12 months. But we all know that supervision is a poor substitute for safe products. When a baby suffocates or strangles, it is usually with little or no noise. Babies have died when parents have been in the same room.

So, what should be done, what are we asking for?

All products in section 104 of the CPSIA (infant and toddler durable products – cribs, strollers, high chairs, etc) should be subject to independent, third-party testing with no exceptions. These are products parents and caregivers buy to keep their children safe. They involve many parts and hardware and can be very dangerous if defective. Let’s not go back to the days of baby test dummies – let’s make sure the products are safe before we use them for our children.

While it may not be reasonable to ask child care providers to replace all cribs every time there is a minor change to the crib standards, there should be a means by which CPSC can require that if necessary. If another flaw in cribs erupts as the drop-side issue did over the past few years, CPSC should have the ability to require safe cribs in child care settings.

The new mandatory crib standard does so much more than ban drop-sides. In fact, it is unlikely that the drop-side cribs on the market over the past decade that led to millions of products being recalled and dozens of deaths could meet this standard – thereby eliminating the need to even officially ban them. The new standards will make sure crib hardware is sturdy, mattress supports and slats can stand up to real world use and that cribs, used to protect an unattended child, can keep a child safe. Allowing all matter of cribs, safe and unsafe, to remain in child care – just because they don’t have a drop-side is a clear attempt to gut the safety improvements of the past few years. Child care is varied and diverse. It is unreasonable to have an exemption for fixed sided cribs without knowing the condition of the crib, when it was made and what standards it does meet. If we are allowing some child care providers to keep older, less safe cribs, they should at least meet the most recent voluntary standard, ASTM 1169-09 or ASTM 406-09 for non-full size cribs.

Tell Congress – “Don’t Retreat on Safety: Keep our nurseries safe”

Call or email your own representative as well as Chairman Bono Mack of the subcommittee and other members. Let them know we can't go backwards on the safety of our youngest consumers. Tell them about your child and why it is important to you that nursery products meet strong standards and be independently tested.

KID co-founder talks about product safety on CBS Early Show

Linda Ginzel appeared this morning on the CBS news show, The Early Show. She talked about her family's experience when her son Danny was killed in a dangerous portable crib at his licensed child care home in 1998. The segment discusses "Danny's Law" which requires product registration cards with nursery products and efforts to get recalled products out of homes and off store shelves.

New tools for recall effectiveness: CPSC Chair visits Chicago

Today marks the first official visit of US CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum to Chicago. In addition to addressing the annual convention of the State Fire Marshals, Chairman Tenenbaum joined Kids In Danger, Consumer Federation of America and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan at a press event to unveil new tools for parents to learn about recalls and to honor the memory of Danny Keysar. Here's the release from the event.

New Tools to Find and Inform Consumers about Recalled Products:
US CPSC Chairman, Illinois Attorney General, Consumers and Parents urge compliance and participation in product registration program

(CHICAGO) Today, in Chicago where much of the furor over children’s product safety started; consumer advocates, parents, federal and state officials gathered to express their commitment to children’s product safety and reveal new tools in the arsenal against recalled and defective products.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety (CPSC) Chairman Inez Tenenbaum joined with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, the founders of Kids In Danger and parents of Danny Keysar who was killed in a recalled portable crib in 1998, and Rachel Weintraub of Consumer Federation of America, to announce new product registration tools for children’s products and discuss other efforts being made to keep children safe.

“I’m here today to thank Kids in Danger and CFA for advocating for product registration cards for nursery products,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “Our research shows that when consumers are directly notified about recalls they are more likely to respond. Product registration cards are now mandatory, and I believe they will help keep children safe.”

Linda Ginzel spoke of her son Danny’s death. Danny was killed in May 1998 at his licensed childcare home, when the crib he had been napping in collapsed around his neck. No one at the facility knew the crib was recalled, not even the state inspector who visited just days before.

“If there had been a product registration card with this portable crib and if the manufacturer had used it to contact the owner, my son would be alive today,” stated Ginzel. “But more important is the fact that that deadly crib would never have been on the market at all, if it had been independently tested to strong mandatory standards. This is what is now required by law and this is Danny’s real legacy -- that products must be tested for safety before they are sold. We believe that this will help save other families from suffering a tragedy as senseless as we have endured since the death of our son.”

A key portion of the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was named after Danny Keysar. It requires:

· New stronger mandatory standards for durable infant and toddler products – such as the new crib standard voted on by CPSC this month.

· A system of product registration – both cards and online options – to help parents register their products and manufacturers to contact them in the event of the recall.

· A requirement that cribs that don’t meet current standards can’t be sold or otherwise put in the stream of commerce – eliminating old unsafe cribs on eBay, in hotels or childcare facilities.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan – whose work helped to focus the nation’s attention on product safety issues – discussed her efforts to protect Illinois families, especially the aggressive efforts to ensure information about dangerous children’s products get directly to parents and other caregivers.

“Today we celebrate the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, which makes it easier for busy parents to learn of recalls and requires tough new standards that will stop dangerous products from reaching store shelves in the first place,” said Attorney General Madigan. "I am pleased to partner with Chairman Tenenbaum, CPSC, Kids in Danger and Consumer Federation of America as we continue our work to protect children and families."

Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel for Consumer Federation of America, spoke of the importance of companies complying with the requirements that registration cards be provided free of any marketing materials and that the information can only be used for safety. Weintraub also urged parents to fill out and submit the cards – either by sending them through the mail or filling out the forms online.

“Today we are marking a huge leap forward in product safety: children’s products are required to be tested before they are sold and product registration cards are now required for many infant and durable products,” stated Weintraub. “Product registration will only be effective if consumers fill out the new product registration cards. Consumer information will be kept private and will allow companies to contact consumers if there is a product recall. Filling out these cards can save a child’s life.”

Weintraub also unveiled new materials Kids In Danger and Consumer Federation of America are offering – a brochure explaining the product registration program and its importance as well as a list with links to most manufacturers’ registration sites. The materials can be accessed online through www.KidsInDanger.org and www.consumerfed.org.

“There have been remarkable changes in the way we regulate children’s products since the passage of the new law in 2008 and we are grateful for the leadership of Chairman Tenenbaum,” concluded Ginzel. “Together, the efforts of the CPSC, the Illinois Attorney General’s office and amazing consumer advocates like Consumer Federation and Kids In Danger will keep children safer – honoring the memory of my son Danny and all victims of dangerous children’s products.

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Danny would be 13 today

Today is the birthday of my nephew, Leo. His mother, my cousin Amy, died in 2007 after a short but intense fight with cancer. I see Leo turning 13 and know how proud his mom would be of what an amazing young man he has become -- and how profoundly sad it is that she isn't here to see it.

But Leo also reminds me of another boy who would be turning thirteen today. Leo shares the birthday of Danny Keysar, whose parents founded KID in 1998 after he was killed in a dangerous portable crib. As I watch Leo grow, I see the shadow of what Danny might be doing and what an amazing young man he would become -- and again, how profoundly sad that he isn't here.

Danny didn't die of a disease with no cure, but of a flawed children's product safety system that allowed a dangerous crib to be sold and then remain in use even after other babies had died.

All of KID's work is to honor the memory of Danny and other victims of unsafe children's products. He is always in our thoughts as are Ellie and Andy, Ethan and Riley, Liam and Kennedy, and too many others. We are proud of the legacy we are building in their memory that will keep other babies safe.

We have seen tremendous change over the past several years in the area of children's product safety. With new laws, some carrying Danny's name, and a new active administration at CPSC, children are already safer today -- but more must be done. Join with us to honor not only Danny, but the children in your life with a safer tomorrow.

• Make a donation to KID in a child's name. We promise to put it to good use fulfilling our mission to promote safer products, advocate for children and educate the public about dangerous children's products.
• Check the children's products in your home for recalls and urge others -- grandparents, caregivers, neighbors and family -- to do the same. There were seven million cribs recalled in the last two years..Make sure your child isn't sleeping in one of them. Sign up for email alerts from CPSC and KID.
  
• Tell your elected officials, local, state and federal -- that children's safety should be a priority
• Read the stories in our Family Voices site. Many of these families paid the ultimate price of unsafe products.
  
• If you have a product that appears to be unsafe, report it to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This is sometimes the only way unsafe products are removed from the marketplace.

Thank you for your support of Kids In Danger and we look forward to working together to make 2010 a year of real safety advances.

Nancy Cowles, executive director

President signs CPSC reform bill

President Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act this morning. This Act is the legacy of the countless children, including Danny Keysar - whose parents founded Kids In Danger - who have been killed or injured by unsafe children's products and toys. It is to honor their memories that KID will work to ensure the full implementation of the bill as quickly as possible. Here's more from the coalition of consumer groups.