WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) applauded passage of the conference report for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 that passed last night by a vote of 89 to 3. This bill makes long-needed reforms to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, dramatically increasing the resources authorized for personnel and laboratory facilities, and strengthening the ability of the Commission to keep dangerous toys and other children’s products from the hands and mouths of children twelve and under.

 

“It is clear this administration’s has taken a hands off approach to governing product safety,” said Cantwell. “This administration has compromised the safety of our children by not aggressively cracking down on dangerous toys and other children's products in the marketplace. That is why Washington state passed a pioneering law to effectively ban certain toxins and show the federal government what needed to be done. This bipartisan legislation takes several key steps to make children and all Americans safer, including essentially eliminating lead and other dangerous chemicals from toys and children’s products and providing the Consumer Product Safety Commission  with significantly greater resources to carry out its mission to protect the American consumer.”

 

The CPSC employs approximately 400 full-time employees who are responsible for monitoring the safety of more than 15,000 different consumer products used in and around the home. The Commission estimates that consumer products under its jurisdiction are related to 27,100 deaths and 33.1 million injuries each year. The combined cost of these deaths, injuries, and related property damage is estimated to exceed $700 billion annually.

 

There were 45 million toys and children’s products recalled in 2007 – including Barbie accessories, Thomas the Tank Engines, toy magnets, and lead-coated jewelry.  As a result, the Consumers Union labeled 2007 “The Year of the Recall.”  This bill will strengthen the ability of the CPSC to prevent dangerous toys from getting to market in the first place, get unsafe products off the shelves more quickly, and increase fines and penalties for violating product safety laws.

The conference report also includes Cantwell language instructing the CPSC to take additional actions to reduce the number of preventable deaths and serious injuries resulting from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. It directs the CPSC to review the effectiveness of its labeling requirements for charcoal briquettes during the windstorm that struck the Pacific Northwest beginning on December 14, 2006; identify any specific challenges faced by non-English speaking populations with use of the current standards; and make recommendations, if warranted, for improving the labels on bags of charcoal briquettes. It also requires the Commission to expeditiously issue its final rule on portable generators.

 

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