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Toys Getting Safer, Safety Chief Claims

CPSC head praises industry efforts, questions Senate bill

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 18, 2008

CPSC Chair Nancy Nord speaks to toy manufacturers

The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission today said the agency will be better suited to protect children from dangerous toys in 2008 and congratulated the toy industry for its new voluntary safety measures.

Speaking at the annual Toy Industry Association's (TIA) American International Toy Fair in New York City, Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the CPSC, said that with increased funds guaranteed for 2008, the agency will have more inspectors, scientists and field officers ensuring the safety of children.

The omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2008, passed in December 2007, increased the agency's 2008 funding by $17 million, the largest increase since 1974, the year after congress founded the agency.

Nord gave a few more details on the agency's Import Surveillance Division which she unveiled at the National Press Club on Jan. 7, 2008.

“We will have more scientists in our laboratories and inspectors in the field and ports,” Nord said. “For the first time, we will have full-time inspectors at the busiest U.S. ports.”

“We're upgrading our information technology access so that we have real-time access to information about shipments headed for our shores,” Nord continued. “We will be setting up special programs for some key product categories including toys.”

Press pummeled

• Mattel Settles Suits Over Dangerous Toys • Target To Pay $600,000 For Violating Lead Paint Ban • Tougher Safety Requirements For Children's Products Now In Effect • Toys 'R' Us Launches Unsafe Baby Products Awareness Program • New Safety Agency Chief Pledges Greater Openness • Obama Names New Consumer Product Safety Chair, Boosts Budget • Toymaker Fined $1.1 Million For Consumer Violations • Maryland Stores Stop Selling Toys With Lead Paint • Toymakers, Craftspeople Up In Arms Over New Safety Law • Thrift Stores Protest Ban on Lead Toys • Target Launches In-Store Recall System • Do's and Don'ts of Holiday Decorating • New Jersey Finds Recalled Toys in Four Stores • Mattel Agrees to Lower Lead Paint Levels in Toys • Consumers Cautioned About Dangerous Toys • Soon-To-Be-Banned Plastic Toys Flooding the Market • Safety Agency Warns of Safety Hazards in Cribs --- • More Consumer Safety News • Recall Notices

Nord, who rarely makes public appearances, took the opportunity to chastise the media for its coverage of the recent rash of toy recalls, just as she did while addressing the National Press Club.

“Some of the coverage did not bring clarity to what represented the greatest dangers of accident and injury,” she said.

Her announcement follows the TIA's passage of stricter voluntary proposals that its members, 80 percent of the toy industry, must follow. The TIA will release details of the new standards on Friday, after the toy fair has concluded. But many say the new proposals are for a new testing and verification system that will include design hazard analysis, auditing manufacturing process controls and product safety testing.

Nord said the TIA's proposals will greatly improve the protection of children.

“I think the leadership of the industry should be congratulated and we worked very closely with them to make sure that this program provides the safety that Americans expect and I'm looking forward to its roll out,” Nord said.

“It would be virtually impossible to test and inspect every single toy,” Nord said. “The toy manufacturers, the importers, the retailers, they can make the difference here. There's no reason why they, the financial beneficiaries of the toy trade, can't self-certify that every toy imported into the United States and put on the toy shelf has a design for safety and is in compliance with all applicable safety standards.”

Toys “R” Us and Wal-Mart also announced new standards on Friday, implementing their own inspection system along with tougher lead and Pthalates standards. Pthalates are chemicals that have been linked to reproductive and birth defects.

Many consumer advocates and CPSC representatives say that with the increased media scrutiny and new voluntary standards, there are likely to be less lead paint dangers and that parents need to be watchful of the traditional toy dangers.

Greatest dangers

“Lead paint is still something we're looking out for,” said CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson. “But the greatest dangers still are choke hazards, magnets, children riding bicycles into traffic, dangers like those.”

“I think there's definitely a heightened awareness about safety,” Chrissy Cianflone, director of program operations at the nonprofit Safe Kids USA, said. “Parents ... should look out for the age designation of toys to make sure that if they have a child under the age of three that they're purchasing toys specifically for that child and if they have children that are of varying ages that the youngest child doesn't get their hands on the small parts of the older child's toys to make sure that they store their toys separately.”

Cianflone also said parents should supervise their children while they play and sign up for the CPSC's recall alerts.

Senate bill

Nord, a Bush appointee, also took the opportunity to share her displeasure with the Senate version of a bill that will greatly increase the agency's funds for at least the next three years.

“The House has passed legislation by a unanimous vote, amending our statutes,” Nord said. “They did this just before Christmas. The Senate is expected to take up its version in the next week or two. While I fully support the House bill, I am concerned about provisions in the Senate version.”

The Senate bill provides much more funding for a longer period of time than the House bill and contains many provisions that has consumer advocates cheering and industry representatives clamoring.

When ConsumerAffairs.com asked what the exact provisions are that concern her, she gave an almost identical response to what she said Jan.7.

“On the senate side, the process was a bit different,” Nord said. “The bill that came out of the committee had some technical flaws as well as some substantive concerns.”

Photo by Joe Enoch

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