Unsafe products overwhelm emaciated safety agency

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007

In the spring of 2005, a baby was strangled by a defective crib in California, and a Texas woman collapsed after she used a can of spray sealant to treat kitchen and bathroom tile.

What links the cases is not just dangerous products and companies that did not move to quickly recall them, but the tragically ineffective response of the government agency responsible for acting when companies do not: the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Begun in 1973 in a wave of consumer protectionism, the commission is overwhelmed and understaffed. It investigates barely 10% to 15% of the reports it gets of product-related deaths and injuries. Its staff has shrunk to about 400 people, from a peak of 978 in 1980. The huge recalls of lead-tainted toys from China this...