The Wall Street Journal-20080114-Some Stalled Safety Rules For Products May Be Enacted
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080114
Some Stalled Safety Rules For Products May Be Enacted
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is poised to move ahead with significant product-safety rules that have stalled for more than a year, including mandatory standards for cigarette lighters, infant pillows and upholstered furniture, the head of the agency said.
The agency lost a commissioner in mid-2006, but for the past six months it has had Congress's blessing to adopt safety rules with only two commissioners -- a window that is due to close early next month. "You will see a series of votes up until Feb. 2, assuming that Congress doesn't pass an extension and give us some breathing room," said acting Chairman Nancy Nord.
The tougher flammability standards for upholstered furniture that it plans to adopt soon have been in the works for 14 years, and mandatory standards for lighters -- which would force imports to meet the U.S. industry's voluntary child-safety standards -- have been before the commission since 2001. Amendments to infant-pillow rules, intended to lessen the risk of infant asphyxiation, have been before the commission for several years.
Even if Congress extends the CPSC's authority to act with two members instead of three, the agency has no immediate plans to tackle two hot-button issues for consumer groups: lead levels in children's products -- more than 175 million units of children's jewelry containing lead have been recalled in recent years -- and measures to keep children safer on all-terrain vehicles -- more than 40,000 children are seriously injured each year riding ATVs.
Ms. Nord said in an interview that the agency will wait for Congress to act on lead levels. "What we are concerned about is not putting out a regulatory direction that is different from what Congress wants us to do," she said.
That exasperates some critics, who say the lag in adopting rules highlights the agency's ineffectiveness. "The CPSC has a long history of moving slowly if they move at all under this administration," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) who sponsored several product-safety bills in Congress, including some that were rolled into a bill that passed the House in December.
Of all the toy-safety problems that came to light in recent months, consumer and environmental groups have been most concerned about lead in children's products -- and most frustrated by the CPSC's decision not to act. Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, a child-safety organization, said quicker action on lead in children's jewelry "would have made safer products available sooner" even if a stronger federal law eventually superseded it.
Since 2004, the CPSC has announced some 50 toy-jewelry recalls, some as recent as last month, because of lead, which can cause brain and nervous system disorders. Most were inexpensive trinkets made in China or India. The matter got relatively little attention until 2004, when a four-year-old in Minneapolis died of lead poisoning after swallowing a lead charm, a giveaway with a pair of sneakers.
The Sierra Club, an environmental group, petitioned the agency in May 2006 to ban lead in children's jewelry. Michael Gale, executive director of the Fashion Jewelry Trade Association, called the proposed standard "reasonable."
But the ban stalled when the agency lost a member -- and its quorum -- in July 2006 and wasn't revived when Congress gave it the ability to act in August 2007. Since then, lawmakers have proposed legislation to overhaul the CPSC that includes further limiting lead content to trace amounts.
Thomas Neltner, co-chairman of the Sierra Club's national toxics committee, said the slow-moving process is one reason that consumer and environmental advocacy groups want Congress to clear CPSC legislation quickly.
Even if the CPSC voted to approve new lead rules immediately, "they are probably another six months to a year away in order to provide time for public comment and go through all the hoops," he said.
The special legislation sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor (D., Ark.) that has allowed the agency to act with two members would be extended nine months under Mr. Pryor's CPSC legislation awaiting action by the full Senate, his office said in a statement. An omnibus CPSC-reform bill passed the House in December.
Both bills would restore the commission to its original five members, who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate; it has operated with three since the 1980s.
The current commissioners, Ms. Nord and Thomas Moore, a Clinton appointee who was reappointed by President Bush in 2003, have clashed over the lead rules, with Mr. Moore pushing for an outright ban.
They also disagree over the issue of pre-emption -- the idea of inserting language into rules that would bar individuals from suing companies for injuries or deaths from using a product that meets federal safety standards.
Mr. Moore has argued against pre-emption provisions, most recently concerning the higher mandatory standard for flammability in mattresses adopted in early 2006. The issue is expected to come up again in the upholstered furniture rule.
In recent years, the CPSC has emphasized its role as an enforcer of voluntary product-safety standards developed in cooperation with industry, generally recalling unsafe products once they come to its attention.
"That is not the public perception of what the agency is supposed to do," said Michael Teague, a spokesman for Sen. Pryor.
