Important Consumer Tool Launched Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A coalition of consumer and safety groups today applauded the launch of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s consumer product safety information database that would allow people to share and access safety information about the products they own and consider buying.

The groups -- Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids In Danger, Public Citizen, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group -- hailed the launch as a major step forward in educating consumers about product safety hazards and improving the CPSC’s ability to identify and act on problems in the marketplace. The database is up and running today online at www.SaferProducts.gov.

The database is required under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2008. As the debate over the federal budget continues in Congress, some lawmakers have pushed to defund the database. Manufacturers have also been pushing to undermine the database.

The CPSC has historically collected consumer complaints, but because the agency has been required to obtain the approval of companies before it could communicate with the public about a specific product, the information has been kept from the public for months or even years. The consumer complaint database will help shed light on the safety of products currently in the marketplace.

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 posted. Complaints will not be considered for publication if 8 specific minimum fields are not completed. 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 measures provide an appropriate balance between transparency for consumers and providing protections for manufacturers.

Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel at Consumer Federation of America, stated, “Consumers will no longer be left in the dark about product safety -- they will now have access to lifesaving information. The CPSC will also be able to more nimbly identify and act upon safety hazards. The database carefully balances the need to bring safety complaints to light, while also allowing manufacturers to review submissions and provide comments.”

Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, said, “This is safety news consumers can use. Once the database is up and running, we think fears raised about the database will be shown to be unnecessary. This database will be a useful tool for consumers.”

Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting children from unsafe products, added, “This crucial tool will help parents keep their families safe. The database will fling open the windows at CPSC and allow consumers to learn of dangerous products before it is too late. The decades of hiding injuries and deaths for months or even years will end. Parents trust a lot of products with their children’s lives. The database puts information in the hands of those who need it most.”

Christine Hines, Public Citizen’s consumer and civil justice counsel, agreed. “Today begins a new era in consumer product safety - one that will empower consumers to help themselves to identify hazardous products. That’s why it’s imperative that Congress follows up its commendable action in creating the database by ensuring it continues to thrive with appropriate funding.”

Liz Hitchcock, U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate, said, “The information exchange that SaferProducts.gov will provide for consumers is going to prevent injuries and save lives.”

Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., President of the National Research Center for Women & Families/ Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund stated, “The product safety database will give everyone the information they need to help protect themselves and their families. It’s a simple but effective strategy that will save lives and improve the quality of our lives.”

Celia Wexler, Washington Representative, Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "The new database strengthens the transparency of CPSC and will enable scientists and researchers, both inside and outside the agency, to spot trends early and pro-actively. The ability to respond to problems before product defects harm scores of consumers benefits both the public and businesses.”

***

Tomorrow is the day

It feels a little like the eve of the first day of school – some of us are very excited and can’t wait; others, not so much.

Tomorrow, CPSC will launch their new publically-accessible consumer database at saferproducts.gov. Now, just as is already the case with cars, medicine and medical devices, consumers will have a place to report incidents with products as well as look for safety information that other consumers might have entered. Manufacturers seem to be dreading the change in the current situation – where they have all the power to determine what safety information consumers know about their products.

We'll have more tomorrow on using the database.

For today, here are some statements from parents who have already lost children to unsafe products – they know the importance of this new database.

The CPSC database gives parents, grandparents, families, friends, medical personnel, and even retailers, IMMEDIATE and FREE access to information regarding problems reported on 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 is dangerously too late. It could take months, as it did in Ellie’s case, before the public has knowledge of this essential information.

Lisa, mother of Ellie who was killed in a Graco play yard with a changing table accessory in 2002.

I firmly believe that if such a database was in effect in the 1990s my son, Tyler, would be alive today. Tyler died when a dangerous drop side crib strangled him. Tyler was not the first (and sadly, not the last) to die due to the inherently flawed crib design. If I, as a consumer, knew about the other babies who died in drop side cribs I would never have purchased that deathtrap. A public database would have empowered me to make a more informed decision about a product intended to be my Tyler’s safe haven.

Michelle, mother of Tyler, who died in 1998, entrapped by a drop-side crib.

If I had known there had been children killed in drop-sides, it would have swayed me against them.

Nicola, mother of Liam, who died in 2005 in a Graco-branded Simplicity drop-side crib. The report to CPSC sat hidden for two years because of confusion over the manufacturer of the crib.

KID believes this database is an important tool for consumers – both to report information they believe will keep other consumers safe and to research products they own or are considering purchasing. It will give CPSC and others tools to identify emerging hazards and injury trends. Contrary to the fears of some – KID won’t be entering data – we’ll be too busy making sure parents are aware of this great safety resource.

KID releases Moving Toward Safety, a review of 2010 recalls and CPSC actions

Today, KID, along with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Illinois PIRG state director Brian Imus, released Moving Towards Safety, a review of 2010 recalls and CPSC actions.

Just about every two days there was a recall of a children’s product in 2010. These 160 recalls account for over 44 million individual toys, cribs, sweatshirts, strollers and more. That’s an increase of twelve percent from 2009 in recalls and 110% in units recalled.

At first glance these facts seem to indicate that the state of children’s product safety had worsened in the last year. However, though the number of recalls and the number of children hurt and killed by unsafe products is cause for concern, there were marked improvements to product safety oversight in 2010 as a result of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and other CPSC actions. We believe that many of these actions will not only reduce recalls in the future, but make it more likely recalled products will be retrieved from use.

The increase in recalls from 2009 can be partially attributed to the numerous recalls to remove from use failure-prone drop-side cribs which have been linked to dozens of deaths, as well as children’s sweatshirts and outerwear that continue to be produced with dangerous drawstrings.

The recalls show that we still have a long way to go before children are fully protected from unsafe products, but at the same time CPSC has taken actions that have had a measurable and positive impact on safety. We can take heart that we are moving in the right direction.

Read more.

Days away from launch, public safety database still faces threats.

The database CPSC has been working on for two and a half years is days away from launch. It will go live on Friday, March 11. CPSC has carefully crafted the site to both solicit important safety information from consumers and encourage accurate reporting. The database will provide consumers with a place to report injury and safety information and provide consumers, researchers and the CPSC with important information on injury trends and emerging hazards.

The CPSC did a soft launch of the database last month. That just means it was live, but the information wasn't made public. The results? 900 reports -- only four were 'materially inaccurate.' And two of those had the wrong manufacturer listed and were easily corrected. One manufacturer/importer at ICPHSO last week said that of the 50 reports they got, 90% agreed to give the manufacturer their contact information, providing a way to verify the information. Some manufacturers told us they didn't receive any reports during the month, others that they had a few and all were reasonable reports of a consumer's experience. So perhaps the sky won't fall next week after all.

But that doesn't stop the attacks. After all, for years manufacturers have been able to hide virtually all injury reports from the public. The status quo means consumers continue to use products that have been involved in numerous injuries or even deaths. The sunshine the database brings means more educated consumers and ultimately, safer products.

The House adopted an amendment to the Continuing Resolution they sent to the Senate that defunds the database -- a move that wastes the money already spent rather than saving money and is designed to stop injury data from coming to light.

If you haven't already contacted your US Senators, please do so and urge them to oppose any "Keep American Families in the Dark" efforts to stop the database.

Update on ICPHSO

So the week spent with other product safety folks at the International Consumer Product Health and Safety (ICPHSO) Symposium was full of information and opportunities to collaborate on new approaches to safety. The first day and 1/2 of the meeting focused on injury prevention. Representatives from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, including our 2007 KID's Best Friend, Dr. Elizabeth Powell, presented information on their research and education efforts. Then, through a series of workshops, representatives from industry, retailers and consumer groups brainstormed with them on injury prevention ideas we could all implement.

Dr. Powell was joined by two other KID's Best Friend honorees -- Dr. Gary Smith (2010) who spoke on his research on smoke alarms and children and Rachel Weintraub (2004) of Consumer Federation of America who organized and moderated the injury prevention segments.

KID's executive director, Nancy Cowles spoke on a panel on recalls. She stressed the need for better recall effectiveness and the rights of consumers to have information on product hazards. In addition, Cowles participated in an injury prevention workshop on toy and home safety.

Much of the conference was dedicated to new changes from CPSC including the database and testing requirements.

We also saw new tools such as the HD XRF machine which can detect heavy metals with more precision than regular XRF guns.

CPSC Chair Inez Tenenbaum spoke and on the final day, CPSC Commissioner and business school professor, gave a talk on negotiating with the CPSC.

More info and membership information can be found at ICPHSO.org.