CPSIA – Science, It’s Really Overrated. So Is Knowing What You are Talking About.

From New Jersey Newsroom:

“Amid continued concern about children’s jewelry tainted with toxic materials, the [New Jersey] Assembly will also consider legislation targeting unsafe jewelry. The bill comes after 55,000 “Princess and the Frog” necklaces were recalled because they may contain high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium. Under the bill (A-2076), no one may sell, distribute, import or manufacture jewelry in New Jersey that contains materials classified as unsafe. The bill also includes stricter restrictions on materials used in children’s jewelry and body piercing jewelry. ‘Buying a necklace or a charm bracelet shouldn’t bring about fears of lead and mercury poisoning, yet the health and safety of New Jerseyans are at risk,’ said Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan (D-Middlesex), a co-sponsor. ‘It’s time these harmful products are taken down from store shelves for good.’” [Emphasis added]

Assemblyman Diegnan, noble Democrat of Middlesex, I am getting sick of listening to headline-seeking politicians who have absolutely NO idea what they are talking about. The January 11 AP story you refer to found a small handful of jewelry with cadmium present. There was no mention of mercury or lead . . . . As to cadmium, the CPSC says they have little or no data on ingestion of cadmium in children and can’t even say (based on available data) that cadmium is a carcinogen through ingestion in children (the current evidence on cadmium involves workplace exposure or inhalation, a horse of a different color). Where did you come up with lead and mercury poisoning from jewelry? Was cadmium not scary enough to get you reelected? Do you have any idea if the presence of cadmium in jewelry is even an issue? Science be damned.

This kind of idiocy brings to mind one of the most memorable of our nation’s discarded political parties, the Know-Nothings of the 1840’s and 50’s. This aptly-named party died a well-deserved slow death . . . but seems to have risen from the dead in the form of today’s Democrats.

Know-Nothings, we can’t let them take over!

Read more here:
CPSIA – Science, It’s Really Overrated. So Is Knowing What You are Talking About.

CPSIA – What Constitutes "Safe"?

One of the tragedies of the CPSIA melodrama is that the consumer groups have completely hijacked the concept of safety, turning it utterly away from concepts of risk assessment. To what, you say? Away from management of identifiable risks to avoidance/elimination of perceived risks. In other words, Congress and our regulators now ignore the data on risk and focus instead on the possibility of risk. The POSSIBILITY of injury, not the actuality of injury.

How much of a difference is this? Pretty big, to judge by the frenzy over cadmium in jewelry. Seven Senators have sponsored a bill called the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act. This law would ban the use of cadmium in kids’ jewelry. Is this “good”? I am not sure how to answer that. To my knowledge, no one has identified a single injury from cadmium in children’s jewelry. It is undeniable that cadmium is a bad element and has the potential to harm. Ergo, jewelry with cadmium is “bad”? I can imagine circumstances where cadmium in jewelry might hurt a child. Then again, if it were so dangerous, where are all the victims?

If this is going to be the new standard, whether a product MIGHT harm someone, I think we are cooked. Assuming that “prevention of possible injury” is to be used as the standard to evaluate products or components of products, let me ask a few questions to see if I understand the “new rules of the road”:

• How certain must the prospect of injury be?
• How specific must the circumstances of the prospective injury be?
• Are we talking about probable injury (more than 50%) or possible injury (odds greater than 0%)? How are those odds to be measured – by unit sold, by contact, by owner, by year, by lifetime use? What’s “reasonable”? [Does anyone care what's reasonable?]
• Are all things that could possibly injure a child now illegal on the same basis?
• If the answer is yes, when will all those other products be banned and/or recalled? Is equity in the treatment of all products “important”?
• If the answer is no, then where do we draw the line?
• How relevant is it that no injuries have been reported?
• How many incidents are required before we declare a product or substance illegal or recalled? How many newspaper articles, editorials or CEH lawsuits are required?
• What responsibility do we have to be consistent in the administration of these rules?

Consistency, that’s important, don’t you think? If cadmium is now tacitly illegal because it might harm a child, do we have to make everything with the possibility of injury to children illegal?

Presumably, since no injuries to children from cadmium has been reported and the Washington Post confirms that doctors do not perceive cadmium as a serious risk (perhaps because it was not prevalent in house paint or in gasoline, hmmm), then anything with the same level of prospective risk would be illegal. That’s more or less everything from water to chicken bones to lead to ruthenium. [Pardon me, ruthenium, one of the world's most expensive and dangerous elements, is a-okay to include in children's products.] Why then aren’t we closing swimming pools which cause more than 250 deaths each year? What about water – you can drown in two inches of water. No more showers?

Is there something special about cadmium, besides that it has appeared in an Associated Press article?

The mania over the prevention of possible injury has turned the business environment into a feeding frenzy that will drive the business community down, down, down. Is that in anyone’s interest? Will we all be safer if we have nothing to buy?

Please consider that the House Energy and Commerce Committee has today weighed in on the Toyota recall. Yes, the same Henry Waxman who is torturing our industry has now turned his talons and sharp teeth on Toyota. Toyota enjoys one of the finest reputations for quality and service in the world. It is renowned as a business leader – and proactively took strong medicine in its gas pedal recall. This is not enough for the venomous Democrats who hate businesses. They need to dig deeper and perhaps damage Toyota enough to help GM and Chrysler, owned by the U.S. government and unions. Bringing the great low, that’s the new American way of the Democrats. It makes me SICK.

I want to close with a note about cows – did you know that cows are killers, too? Yes, they are – the New York Times reports:

“The image of cows as placid, gentle creatures is a city slicker’s fantasy, judging from an article, published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reporting that about 20 people a year are killed by cows in the United States. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans — ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head — resulting in fatal injuries to the head and chest.”

COWS kill 20 people a year, cadmium has apparently killed ZERO. We are running pell-mell to ban cadmium from jewelry because a misguided newspaper article fueled panic. Are cows next? Should they be? If cadmium jewelry goes away and cows stay unregulated, will respect for our laws remain?

Respect for Congress, that’s another thing.

Read more here:
CPSIA – What Constitutes "Safe"?

CPSIA – What Constitutes "Safe"?

One of the tragedies of the CPSIA melodrama is that the consumer groups have completely hijacked the concept of safety, turning it utterly away from concepts of risk assessment. To what, you say? Away from management of identifiable risks to avoidance/elimination of perceived risks. In other words, Congress and our regulators now ignore the data on risk and focus instead on the possibility of risk. The POSSIBILITY of injury, not the actuality of injury.

How much of a difference is this? Pretty big, to judge by the frenzy over cadmium in jewelry. Seven Senators have sponsored a bill called the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act. This law would ban the use of cadmium in kids’ jewelry. Is this “good”? I am not sure how to answer that. To my knowledge, no one has identified a single injury from cadmium in children’s jewelry. It is undeniable that cadmium is a bad element and has the potential to harm. Ergo, jewelry with cadmium is “bad”? I can imagine circumstances where cadmium in jewelry might hurt a child. Then again, if it were so dangerous, where are all the victims?

If this is going to be the new standard, whether a product MIGHT harm someone, I think we are cooked. Assuming that “prevention of possible injury” is to be used as the standard to evaluate products or components of products, let me ask a few questions to see if I understand the “new rules of the road”:

• How certain must the prospect of injury be?
• How specific must the circumstances of the prospective injury be?
• Are we talking about probable injury (more than 50%) or possible injury (odds greater than 0%)? How are those odds to be measured – by unit sold, by contact, by owner, by year, by lifetime use? What’s “reasonable”? [Does anyone care what's reasonable?]
• Are all things that could possibly injure a child now illegal on the same basis?
• If the answer is yes, when will all those other products be banned and/or recalled? Is equity in the treatment of all products “important”?
• If the answer is no, then where do we draw the line?
• How relevant is it that no injuries have been reported?
• How many incidents are required before we declare a product or substance illegal or recalled? How many newspaper articles, editorials or CEH lawsuits are required?
• What responsibility do we have to be consistent in the administration of these rules?

Consistency, that’s important, don’t you think? If cadmium is now tacitly illegal because it might harm a child, do we have to make everything with the possibility of injury to children illegal?

Presumably, since no injuries to children from cadmium has been reported and the Washington Post confirms that doctors do not perceive cadmium as a serious risk (perhaps because it was not prevalent in house paint or in gasoline, hmmm), then anything with the same level of prospective risk would be illegal. That’s more or less everything from water to chicken bones to lead to ruthenium. [Pardon me, ruthenium, one of the world's most expensive and dangerous elements, is a-okay to include in children's products.] Why then aren’t we closing swimming pools which cause more than 250 deaths each year? What about water – you can drown in two inches of water. No more showers?

Is there something special about cadmium, besides that it has appeared in an Associated Press article?

The mania over the prevention of possible injury has turned the business environment into a feeding frenzy that will drive the business community down, down, down. Is that in anyone’s interest? Will we all be safer if we have nothing to buy?

Please consider that the House Energy and Commerce Committee has today weighed in on the Toyota recall. Yes, the same Henry Waxman who is torturing our industry has now turned his talons and sharp teeth on Toyota. Toyota enjoys one of the finest reputations for quality and service in the world. It is renowned as a business leader – and proactively took strong medicine in its gas pedal recall. This is not enough for the venomous Democrats who hate businesses. They need to dig deeper and perhaps damage Toyota enough to help GM and Chrysler, owned by the U.S. government and unions. Bringing the great low, that’s the new American way of the Democrats. It makes me SICK.

I want to close with a note about cows – did you know that cows are killers, too? Yes, they are – the New York Times reports:

“The image of cows as placid, gentle creatures is a city slicker’s fantasy, judging from an article, published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reporting that about 20 people a year are killed by cows in the United States. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans — ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head — resulting in fatal injuries to the head and chest.”

COWS kill 20 people a year, cadmium has apparently killed ZERO. We are running pell-mell to ban cadmium from jewelry because a misguided newspaper article fueled panic. Are cows next? Should they be? If cadmium jewelry goes away and cows stay unregulated, will respect for our laws remain?

Respect for Congress, that’s another thing.

Read more here:
CPSIA – What Constitutes "Safe"?

CPSIA – Congressional Eager Beavers Push Anti-Cadmium Law

Congress’ Junior Scientists Club (Senators Klobuchar, Schumer and Nelson) sprung into action Tuesday to solicit co-sponsors for CPSIA knock-off legislation to ban cadmium and various other materials in jewelry. The delicious irony here is their choice of day to launch this effort, namely the day that Massachusetts elected a Republican to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate, an election result widely interpreted as a firm rejection of this Administration’s government intervention, you know, like this bill.

Let’s not forget that in 1972 the Federal Government created a little known agency to handle “threats” like this, namely the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Congress gave the CPSC the authority it needed to do its job. Oddly, today our Democratic-dominated government seems to think that only it can solve safety problems and further must LEAP into action to save us. I question this. Perhaps the CPSC even questions this.

Even more remarkable is the Dems persistence in pursuing a CPSIA strategy to “stop this cold”. Have these Senators learned nothing from the last 18 months of CPSIA chaos and pain, preferring instead to continue legislating without research, hearings or contemplation? Well, the approach “worked” once before and they did read an AP story about it. . . .

Someday these Senators will be up for reelection. Mark your calendars!

Here’s their letter for your reading pleasure:

Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:16 PM
Subject: Cosponsor the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act – keep cadmium out of children’s jewelry

Senators Schumer, Nelson and Klobuchar are seeking cosponsors of the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act. A copy of the draft bill is attached. Please let Stacy Ettinger in Senator Schumer’s office know, this week, if your boss would like to cosponsor the bill or if you have any questions about the bill.
Also, appended below, please find the January 10, 2010, by Justin Pritchard on the Associated Press’s investigation into use of cadmium in children’s jewelry and the adverse health effects of cadmium exposure (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34793600/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/print/1/displaymode/1098/ ).

SUPPORT THE SAFE KIDS’ JEWELRY ACT
Protect Children from Exposure to Cadmium and Other Toxic Heavy Metals in Children’s Jewelry

Dear Colleague,

We write to request that you consider cosponsoring the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act. We believe that this bill is vital to protect children from exposure to cadmium and other toxic heavy metals in children’s jewelry. The legislation would prohibit the manufacture and sale of children’s jewelry – including charms, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, earrings, or rings – containing cadmium, barium or antimony.

Cadmium is a soft, silver-white metal that typically is used to manufacture pigments and batteries and in the metal-plating and plastics industries. Cadmium is a known carcinogen and studies show that direct exposure has adverse developmental and reproductive effects and can lead to kidney disease, among other health problems. Infants and young children are particularly vulnerable to the dangerous effects of cadmium and other toxic heavy metals. Children’s growing bodies absorb these metals at much higher rates than adults and long-term cumulative exposure increases toxicity.

This legislation is needed because test findings show a growing presence of cadmium in children’s jewelry as foreign manufacturers switch from lead – now banned in children’s products – to cheap substitute metals. In lab testing for a recent Associated Press investigation, chemists found significant use of cadmium in a variety of charms, bracelets and pendants sold at several popular retail stores.

In addition to banning children’s jewelry made with cadmium, barium or antimony, the legislation provides for enforcement of the ban, as well as further study on whether other heavy metals should be banned for use in children’s jewelry or other children’s products. Specifically, the bill —

· Protects children. Children are most vulnerable to the health risks from cadmium and other heavy metals. The bill bans the manufacture and sale of children’s jewelry containing cadmium, barium or antimony marketed for children ages 12 and under. Products covered by the ban include charms, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, earrings and rings. The ban would take effect 90 days from enactment of the legislation.

· Gives the CPSC flexibility to designate the most effective testing and certification requirements. The bill gives the Commission authority and flexibility to set stringent, effective testing and certification requirements for manufacturers to ensure the safety of children’s jewelry.

· Sets criminal and civil penalties for violations. Children’s jewelry containing cadmium, barium or antimony would be considered a “banned hazardous substance” under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (“FHSA”). The bill mandates application of criminal and/or civil penalties under the FHSA for any violations of the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act. The bill requires the Commission to report annually to Congress on its actions to enforce the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act, as well as whether the Commission imposed any criminal or civil penalties for violations of the Act.

· Does not preempt State or local law. A significant number of States and localities across the country are now considering enacting laws to ban sales of children’s jewelry containing cadmium and other heavy metals. The bill makes clear that the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act would not preempt State or local laws relating to regulation of products containing cadmium, barium or antimony. The bill also clarifies that the Safe Kids’ Jewelry Act would not affect any enforcement action or liability of any person under State law.

· Requires CPSC to report to Congress regarding heavy metals which should be banned from children’s products. The bill requires the Commission to study and report to Congress within one year on whether other heavy metals should be banned from use in children’s jewelry or other children’s products.

We hope you will join us in supporting this bill. If you have any questions about the bill or would like to cosponsor the bill, please contact Stacy Ettinger in Senator Schumer’s office (4-7945 or stacy_ettinger@jec.senate.gov); Clint Odom in Senator Nelson’s office (clint_odom@billnelson.senate.gov); or Jonathan Becker in Senator Klobuchar’s office (jonathan_becker@klobuchar.senate.gov).

Sincerely,

/S/
Charles E. Schumer
Bill Nelson
Amy Klobuchar

Read more here:
CPSIA – Congressional Eager Beavers Push Anti-Cadmium Law