Consumer safety needs a champion

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 10, 2007

NANCY Nord must go. The sooner the better.

The chief problem with the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission is her refusal to act.

Nords reluctance to acknowledge her agencys glaring weaknesses is causing the American people to lose confidence in the safety of the toys they buy for their children.

With the holiday shopping season upon us, its time for Congress to step in. The Bush administrations effort to slash the commissions budget, and its failure to pressure Nord to do her job, are having disastrous results. The president should select a new head for the commission who will restore consumers confidence that the toys they buy are free of dangerous lead products.

The latest evidence of the failure of Nords agency and the toy industry to keep toys safe is Wednesdays announcement by more than a dozen U.S. environmental health organizations. They revealed research showing 17 percent of the 1,200 products they had studied did not meet the federal governments standards for lead.

That makes Nords resistance to stronger enforcement -- and to more spending on enforcement -- mind-boggling.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has the solution. He introduced a package of bills in July that would double the agencys budget over the next seven years to $140 million, restore staffing to original levels and increase fines for violating product safety rules from $1.25 million to $20 million.

The bills would also force all toys made for children under the age of 5 to be independently tested and certified. That may cause a slight increase in toy prices, but thats a cost consumers should willingly pay.

Why does Nord oppose the legislation? Heres a good theory. A Washington Post report last fall revealed that the toy industry had recently paid for her business trips to China, Spain and a golf resort.

Its going to be challenging enough to get toy manufacturers in the United States, let alone China, to adhere to U.S. safety standards. The United States doesnt need the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission cozying up to the industry shes supposed to help regulate.

San Jose Mercury News

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