Don't let them hijack safety -- attempts to gut CPSC funding for critical safety measures

Amendments to vital funding measures are currently being considered in the US House of Representatives that would gut key safety provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Under threat is the funding for the public database that is set to help consumers learn of and report unsafe products and the third-party testing provisions that are helping to ensure the safety of toys and other children's products.

Without third-party testing to ferret out design flaws and other safety issues, the tough new mandatory standards won't mean much. After all, a ban was in place before the avalanche of toys recalled for lead paint in 2007 -- but with no independent testing, the tainted products were sold to our children anyway.

Without this public database, all of our efforts to make information about unsafe products available to the public will be undermined. The status quo, where public safety information is sealed away in CPSC files, serves no one -- except those making dangerous products. The CPSC database contains an array of protections to ensure that inaccurate information does not get published. Anonymous complaints will not be permitted, and only safety-related information will be permitted. Complaints will not even be considered for publication if 8 specific minimum fields are not filled out. Businesses also get to see every report of harm before it is placed in the database, and have the opportunity to correct inaccurate information and to provide their own comments. These protections are in place to provide transparency for consumers, while also providing protections for manufacturers.

Read this letter from Lisa Olney, whose daughter Ellie was killed in an unsafe portable crib for a personal testament to the importance of this database.

And don't be fooled -- the small amount this will save won't balance the budget -- these cuts are specifically targeted to stop safety measures already approved by Congress.

Contact your representatives immediately to tell them to oppose these attempts to hijack safety and to put the safety of our children first. The amendments to the Continuing Resolution (CR) are filed by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and are #545 (defunds the Database), #546 (defunds work to set rules for third party testing) and #547 (defunds CPSC's ability to accredit labs for third party testing for phthalates and toy testing) Click here to find and contact your representative!

UPDATE: Amendment 545 is up for discussion today! Call or email your Congressional Representative. Click here to find and contact your representative!

More on the database, from a mother's perspective

This letter is from Lisa Olney, whose daughter Ellie would have been 9 last week, had she not died in a portable crib just after her first birthday.

It scares to me think that the mandated database, part of the CPSIA, has organizations and individuals attempting to suppress it. This database is an essential part of keeping our children safe by making consumer experience with products accessible to all.

On December 19, 2002, my daughter Elizabeth, just 13 months old, died in a poorly designed play yard. I live my life often looking back through “what if’s” and “should have’s,” but I’ve learned to give most of that up in order to save myself from being a horribly miserable individual. Instead, I realize the importance of focusing on efforts to protect our children so that no parent has to suffer from what I have, along with too many other victims of unsafe children's products. This CPSC database is going to protect millions of children, because it provides a place to go when considering the choices parents make when purchasing products, especially those products intended to be beneficial to our children’s safety.

Since Elizabeth’s death, I gave birth to a third daughter. Having been so disappointed in the things I learned about children’s product safety since Elizabeth’s accident, it is an understatement to say I was paranoid and at a loss as to how I might raise another baby, using products whose manufacturer’s executives or legal teams were suppressing information essential to my child’s safety.

Sure, there is the CPSC recall list, but what about the complaints lying in the “inbox” of someone’s desk, waiting to be investigated? What about those products that had a few complaints but never made it to the public until it resulted in a death? It took nine months for the CPSC to release Ellie’s story and the warning that went with it. It wasn’t even a recall; Graco only had to offer new warning labels cautioning people of the possibility and danger of entrapment.

The database planned for CPSC gives parents, grandparents, families, friends, medical personnel, and even retailers, immediate and FREE information on ANY problems reported about a particular product, not just those few which rise to the surface because a child has either died or been seriously injured by the product. By that time, it’s too dangerously late. As with Ellie’s case, it could take months before the public sees this information.

Of course manufacturers might not be pleased with production of such a database because it not only means that their products could show up on the database, it also means that they will be forced to spend more money on assuring the safety of their product if they want it to sell.

A child is priceless, beyond what any definition might attach itself to that word. I don’t know whether Ellie was destined to be a ballerina or a professional race car driver. I also don’t know what she might have looked like on her 9th birthday last week or what her laughter sounds like. What I do know is that her life was ripped from her too soon.

CPSC’s database demands that manufacturers hold themselves to higher standards and give the public the chance to decide for themselves, whether a product’s small glitch or major defect is worth taking a risk on and buying for their child. I cringe at the thought that a manufacturer might put enough pressure on the CPSC to divert the creation of this database in any way.

Companies who make products for our children deserve to be held accountable for that product at every moment. I certainly can never hide from my grief, my pain, or the permanent hole in my life that once was my toddling, smiling child. Manufacturers don’t deserve the ability to hide.

Sincerely,

Lisa L. (Davis) Olney

LA Times reporter posts video about CPSC Database -- vote is tomorrow

David Lazarus, a reporter with the LA Times has both written about and posted a video about the CPSC Consumer Product Safety Database. As he says, it is good for consumers. The vote at CPSC is tomorrow morning.

CPSC database coming closer to a reality

In 2007 and 2008, during the discussions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act as the bill was named in the end, consumer advocates repeatedly raised the issue of secrecy at CPSC, pointing to the human cost of keeping injury data secret from consumers using the products. While advocates had hoped to remove Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act -- which is an effective gag order on much safety information -- what happened in the end was a public database -- the ability of consumers to report injuries and incidents with products to CPSC which would then be available to other consumers making choices about those products.

According to the dedicated website at CPSC, the database will be a reality in 134 days (March 2011). The Commission was briefed by staff in a three hour session on October 20 and the final vote is expected in mid-November. CPSC staff have done yeoman's work in creating a process that encourages use of the database as well as the accuracy of the information. Consumers, business, academic researchers and CPSC staff will be able to access crucial safety information, in many cases before a recall or serious injury or death. You can view a Q&A about the database here.

That doesn't mean there hasn't been push back from companies who have gotten used to dealing with their safety problems in a more secretive way. But as Rachel Weintraub of Consumer Federation of America (pictured above at a CPSC workshop on the database with Consumer Union's Ami Gadhia) points out in an excellent article in this week's Product Safety Forum, consumers will be the winners in the long run.

CPSC two day workshop on public database

Kids In Danger, along with other consumer groups, manufacturers, state officials and others, just completed two days of workshops at CPSC aimed at developing the public consumer incident database required by CPSIA.

The event was held in a roundtable format that allowed all parties to interact and answer questions the CPSC staffed poised as well as get additional information from CPSC on the progress they have made to date.

I believe everyone found it a productive two days and very helpful in developing this vital safety tool.

CPSC has posted the video from the workshops. Comments on the questions raised at the workshop or other database issues will be accepted by CPSC through January 29, 2010. The database is scheduled to be live in March 2011.