Toxics & Public Health News

Bill Provides Important New Protections for Children and Consumers

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky joined Illinois PIRG today in lauding the enactment of the landmark Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act of 2008 which provides the toughest lead standards in the world for children’s products. The Act also strengthens the oversight of toys and children’s products by the Consumer Product Safety Commission – oversight which had withered on the vine in recent years.

““Every child in America will be safer now that the CPSC bill has become law. The new law will make sure that our children are no longer used as test dummies because children's toys and products will have to be pre-tested and meet high standards,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky after the legislation was signed into law today.  “The CPSC will finally have the resources and personnel it needs to protect our children from dangerous toys and products.  This new law will also give parents the piece of mind to know that the products they purchase will no longer harm their children.  As a mother and grandmother, I’m proud that we were able to work together to protect our children from unsafe products by creating the strongest product safety reforms in recent history.

“I want to thank Congressman Schakowsky for completing a strong Product Safety Modernization Act and for her strong leadership in helping Illinois consumers,” said Brian Imus, state Director with Illinois PIRG. “The bill is a huge victory for America's littlest consumers."

For several years Congresswoman Schakowsky has joined Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) to alert shoppers to hidden toy hazards and release “Trouble in Toyland,” the group’s annual toy safety survey.  The most recent report stated that while progress had been made over the last two decades, researchers still found lead-laden and dangerous toys on store shelves. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled popular toys, including Barbie and Polly Pockets, for poorly designed magnets that fell out. Other toy hazards reported in the PIRG annual survey included toys containing other toxic chemicals, excessively loud toys, and strangulation hazards.  The Consumers Union also dubbed 2007 the Year of the Recall.  

This year, dangerous toy and product recalls occurred at an even swifter rate.  Among these, the CPSC has recalled more than one million more magnet toys based on the 2007 PIRG survey. According to a report released by Illinois PIRG and partners in the product safety coalition in July, recalls have increased by 22% in 2008.

The bill is a historic step forward in product safety.  In addition to its massive increase in CPSC resources and funding, and its increase in civil penalty and recall authorities, the new law will:

• Make industry's voluntary toy standard mandatory, which means that magnets and many other hazards will be subject to the new law's centerpiece third party testing requirement.
• Ban six toxic phthalates in children's products. Three are banned permanently. Three would then be subject to a CPSC scientific review, but are banned until it is completed. If the ban is removed, states would regain authority to ban them.
• Grant private-sector employees whistleblower protections, which means more hazards will be reported to the CPSC.
• Require establishment of a public CPSC database of potential hazards.
• Require that choking hazards be disclosed in Internet advertising.

In addition, the law’s new third party testing requirement does not include an additional new layer of preemption that the toy industry had demanded for months, which would have stifled state attorney general enforcement of a critical new untested product safety reform.

“Toxic chemicals like lead and phthalates have no business in our children’s toys,” said Imus. "Members of Congress like Jan Schakowsky deserve tremendous credit for getting a strong bill over the finish line and signed into law."