CPSIA – Consumer Group Testimony at CPSC 100 ppm Lead Standard Hearing 2-16-11

I have prepared some clips from the CPSC hearing on 100 ppm Lead Standard on February 16, 2011. I have not prepared comprehensive clips on every presentation. For instance, I omitted the testimony of the testing companies from the second panel (here’s a hint – guess what they are ready and willing to do?). If you want to see video that I have not delivered to you on a silver platter, check out the CPSC video of the Morning Session (consumer groups and testing companies) and Afternoon Session (industry representatives, including my testimony).

There is a lot of interesting testimony not in my clips, in particular in the afternoon. Although I think I am giving you a lot of relevant information in the clips I prepared, you are always welcome to check my work. I was quite impressed by the other presenters in the afternoon session, and the vigorous and interesting discussion that followed, but anticipated that you would not likely spend 4-5 hours watching the entire thing. If that floats your boat, please enjoy the links above.

In this post, I am embedding several clips from the morning session where the consumer groups stated their “case”. I hesitate to characterize the testimony as “tall tales” but watch for yourself and see what you think. I have come to believe that the consumer groups will say ANYTHING to prop up their beloved CPSIA. [Consider the laughable "consumer poll" prepared by the Consumers Union promoted by Henry Waxman on the eve of the House Hearings on February 17, 2011. CU shamed themselves with this pathetic effort to "win" the debate with garbage polling data.] This may include the remarkable hyperbole in the clips below. We can speculate among ourselves whether Don Mays really shakes with fear at the thought of his daughter playing a brass instrument (he says he would be “very concerned”).

Likewise, does Dr. Dana Best believe the nonsense statistics she flung around last week, like the one about ingesting an object with 300 ppm lead costing a child four IQ points? Please, dear G-d, that statistic is absurd on its face. The assertion that children are losing four IQ points from swallowing objects with trace levels of lead is irresponsible and misleading at a minimum, and something much worse if done with understanding or intent. The spectacle of Ms. Best’s testimony included calculations of the “cost” of 1 million injured children DESPITE the inability of any consumer group to produce the case history of a single child injured from lead-in-substrate in children’s product EVER. [I replied to Dana Best in my testimony.]

We must hold Dana Best responsible for the words that came from her mouth. Interestingly, Dr. Best was the only nominal author of the seminal testimony on lead in the CPSIA debacle. According to her colleague Cindy Pelligrini, Dr. Best didn’t write her 2007 Congressional testimony (Pelligrini told me in a phone interview in 2008 that she wrote it for Dr. Best to deliver). Did Dr. Best write last week’s testimony or was it another Cindy Pelligrini job? One can’t help but wonder, given the shocking assertions based on misleading and garbled data. The AAP should be ashamed.

Dr. Dana Best (AAP) on losing IQ points and “millions” of victims:

Dr. Dana Best worries about children licking their bicycles . . .

My 17 year old daughter came along on this adventure and at breakfast the next morning, asked me why a child would like their sibling’s bike rather than their parent’s? After all, the adult bike is not regulated. I thought that was a good point, and added that if we posit that the child was going to lick something inappropriately, why would they lick a bike – why not the family car, which is coated with lead paint? Of course, I got it wrong. I was later corrected by someone who, after listening to this story, reminded me that the two year old wouldn’t lick either bike or even the car – they would play in the pool of oil under the car. You can take it from there . . . .

Don Mays (Consumers Union) and Dana Best (AAP) on the frightening prospect of children playing in brass bands:

Read more here:
CPSIA – Consumer Group Testimony at CPSC 100 ppm Lead Standard Hearing 2-16-11

GUEST BLOG – BOSTON GLOBE WRITER TAKES NOTICE OF ALL THOSE CPSC RECALLS

Rick has blogged in this space about how the onslaught of recalls by the CPSC is numbing to consumers. Boston Globe writer Sylvia Pagán Westphal has taken notice in a column over the weekend:

Boston Globe

The safety scare
Separate dangerous products from those that pose little risk
By Sylvia Pagán Westphal | July 7, 2010

IF YOU’RE the parent of a young child and want to be very scared, don’t waste time looking for horror movies on TV. Just go to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website for child product recalls. You won’t be able to sleep for days.

The site features an interminable selection of common children’s products that have been recalled. Some of the depictions are downright gruesome: in cases of defective cribs, for example, there are pictures of baby dolls with necks pinned down between rails, or of their little faces pressed against a mattress, as if suffocating. The intent is, to be sure — for I see no other reason to scare the wits out of an unsuspecting, Internet-roaming mother — to jolt parents into action if they own one of the products.

One recent afternoon, I was clicking through the recalls page when I realized, to my dismay, that during my 9-year stint as a parent I have owned several of the featured items. My colorful rainforest-themed baby swing was there, and so was one of my cribs. The baby sling I used with my son was recalled after three babies suffocated in 2009. The kinds of bath seats I used (and loved) with my daughter aren’t sold anymore, following various recalls.

I never found out about these announcements. Had I taken the time to register each product I might have heard from the manufacturers, but I didn’t do it, and neither do most of the parents I know. Some pediatricians’ offices and stores post selected recall sheets, and there is an e-mail list from Consumer Product Safety Commission one can opt into, but with over 100 of these announcements per year it’s hard to keep track of the information.

Part of the problem is that recall announcements don’t explicitly distinguish between problems with products that are truly dangerous and defective versus products with sub-optimal design that, when used properly, pose little risk. For example, the commission recently recalled a bed because one child got his head stuck in its storage compartment. Not to take away from that kid’s pain, but I have numerous compartments in my home where my children’s heads would fit if they tried hard enough.

In a way, some of the announcements appear to be directed at shielding us from our own parental incompetence. Millions of baby bath seats and walkers are no longer sold due to drownings and falls suffered by babies who were basically left unsupervised. The recent high-profile recalls of drop-side cribs were prompted by deaths that, in some cases, were caused by cribs that were incorrectly put together or were subjected to shoddy home repairs.

Don’t get me wrong: to the extent that these recalls remove poorly designed products from the market the efforts should be praised. If motels and hotels are forced to carry safer cribs, that’s a good thing. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission and other safety advocacy groups should be mindful of putting each recall into perspective, so as not to unnecessarily scare the public. For example, the multiple recalls (and likely national ban) on drop-side cribs comes after 32 documented deaths over the last 10 years and millions of cribs sold. That’s surely 32 deaths too many, but more children die each year choking on food.

There is a real downside to a system that feeds into our nation’s growing safety paranoia, which isn’t healthy either. Many of my overseas friends have a hard time understanding our obsession with safety — we put locks on our toilet seats, cover the corners of tables with rubber guards, and use hand sanitizer with ever-intensifying zeal. Taking that baby walker away, just like covering the table corners, is a bit like avoiding air travel for fear of crashing, while still driving a car every day. The world is a very dangerous place to raise a child. Leave the house and there are hard edges, pointy rocks, and steep inclines everywhere. As much as we’d like to, we just can’t childproof those too.

Sylvia Pagán Westphal is a regular contributor to the Globe opinion pages.

Posted to Rick’s Blog by Alliance for Children’s Product Safety Staff

Read more here:
GUEST BLOG – BOSTON GLOBE WRITER TAKES NOTICE OF ALL THOSE CPSC RECALLS

CPSIA – Lowest Common Neurosis

I have a new legal standard for the CPSC in its continuing effort to make everyone so, so, SOOOO safe: the “Lowest Common Neurosis”. Under this innovative legal standard, our safety agency would reset its legal standards and reissue 2500 pages of rules every time a ridiculous news article appears touting a poorly-conceived, made-up phobia relating to children’s products. There are so many examples to think of, from cadmium jewelry (thanks, AP!) to Zhu Zhu Pets with lethal noses to the latest craze, making hourly employees at the checkout counter cough up General Conformity Certificates on the spot.

Hadn’t heard of that one yet? This is the latest craze sweeping the nation, thoughtfully brought to our attention by the Dallas CBS affiliate on May 10. Their report begins ominously: “Mindee Haas buys plenty of toys for her 15-month-old daughter Sophia. Haas, 33, says she usually trusts those toys are safe, but her trust is fading after a recent run of toy recalls.”

Ah, the “recent run of toy recalls”. And those were what, precisely??? I think the crack CBS “investigator” is referring to the recalls in 2007/8. They certainly couldn’t be referring to recent recalls because toy recall rates have fallen precipitously. According to data from the CPSC website, there have been a grand total of nine recalls through April 15 of this year (one alleged injury, from laceration) and only 32 in 2009 (20 alleged injuries and one death, none from lead). This is very low by historical standards. Of the 3 billion toys estimated sold per year in our country, only 4,530,860 were recalled in 2009 over 32 recalls. The total units recalled this year is 888,680 through April 15. This amounts to a recall of approximately 1 in 1,000 toys sold (in other words, 99.9% toys were NOT recalled in 2009/10).

I guess a crisis is whatever CBS Dallas says it is.

Apparently not satisfied with creating a scare about imaginary recalls, the CBS affiliate continues to intone, quoting the mom: “‘I don’t want [my daughter] to be a lab rat at home,’ said Haas ‘There are so many things in toys these days that we just don’t know the effects of them long term and that’s what’s scary.’ Toy after toy has been yanked off the shelves deemed unsafe for children.”

To “investigate”, CBS decided to find evidence of toy safety. They chose the low budget route and opted to NOT test toys, perhaps fearing that the toys would pass (and then what would they be able to say?). Instead, Matahari-like, “CBS 11 News went undercover inside the most popular toy stores to see if they had the certificates for their toys.”

Frankly, if I still had a sense of humor about this awful law and its devastating consequences, I might find this rather amusing. I don’t. Here’s what CBS did, in their own words:

“Employees at both stores and even a manager said this was the first time they heard about safety certificates. ‘I have a guest who’s wanting to buy a toy she says she was told that you can get a certificate printed out something that says there’s been a lead recall or not,’ asked a Target employee ‘It shows if the toy has been tested for lead.’ We waited as the employee got an answer from her manager, ‘Do you know anything about that?’ Manager: ‘No I have never heard that we don’t have certificate.’” Incredibly, the checkout person at Babies R Us and Toys R Us also did not have a copy of the company’s safety files right there for inspection. Whoa!

I think this is CBS’s hidden camera video of their investigation:

CBS was able to get some great insights on the problem from a SMU Marketing professor. He thinks the stores are blowing it. “‘Not only is it important to have [the GCCs], but you could use [the certificates] to market your store,’ explained [Dan] Howard ‘You could advertise the fact that we have it!’ When asked how difficult he thought it was to simply know about the certificates Howard responded ‘Not difficult at all!’”

Dan Howard says it’s not difficult at all to have checkout counter access to GCCs at Target, TRU and all other U.S. retail outlets for children’s products. Well that settles it! I sense a new rule a-comin’!

And how does Mom feel about the CBS findings? I think she articulates our new Lowest Common Neurosis rather well: “‘Just not knowing if the companies are being responsible enough to know what’s in their products that’s what’s concerning,’” said Haas. She says she will stick to going to her mom and pop shops for the time being.”

Anyone want to kick in for a national Xanax fund?

Read more here:
CPSIA – Lowest Common Neurosis

CPSIA – Send Me Your Notes about Disappearing Products

We need some data about your sense of regret and loss over the disappearance of favorite products. We are interested in everyone’s feelings, so feel free to share if you are a consumer, a teacher, a school administrator, a parent, a store owner, a distributor, whatever. We want to know about CPSIA-related product disappearances. Are you finding it harder to find that educational product you know and love or need, that t-shirt your daughter wants, that piece of jewelry you wanted to buy for a birthday, that special hair bow you need to make your baby sparkle? Have you lost suppliers, supply items, product lines you depend on? What are the casualties brought on by the CPSIA?

Please send me your notes. You can leave them as comments to this post, or email them to me at rwoldenberg@learningresources.com or fax them to me at 847-281-1730. Please provide your name and address, as well as a return email address.

We need to make ourselves heard. Please ask friends, family and associates to answer this call. Thank you!

Read more here:
CPSIA – Send Me Your Notes about Disappearing Products