Parading before you today will be two familiar panels: The first will feature acting Consumer Product Safety Commission Chair Nancy Nord and Commissioner Thomas Moore, who skipped out of last week’s hearing for a dentists appointment. The second will be devoted solely to Mattel CEO Robert Eckert.
safety
Hey, Why Aren't Your Toys Made In China?
By 9.18.07
The New York Times took a look at some European toy makers who decided to let the Chinese Poison Train pass them by. Why didn’t they outsource their manufacturing to China?
By 9.18.07
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Dole Hearts Delight salad mix (E. coli), Braun Normal Saline Flush syringes (particulate matter in the saline), Stone Meats 5 lb lean meat (pieces of metal).
EU May Ban Chinese Toys After October
By 9.17.07
China’s toy imports make up more than half the toy market in the EU, and apparently their lax safety record hasn’t escaped the grim, existential gaze of Europe. Meglena Kuneva, an EU commissioner, put it quite bluntly in front of the EU’s internal market and consumer protection committee last week: “This is the last warning. If there’s an unsatisfactory report in October we will [impose] the next layer of measures. Among them is a ban on products,” which the Associated Press reports could include toys.
Toy Prices To Rise 10%
By 9.15.07
Toys will be 10% more expensive next year thanks the toy industry’s latest attempts to protect American children from defective merchandise. Toy makers will use the hike to offset the cost of retaining independent labs to both test for defective and dangerous toys, and provide a measure of PR security.
Consumers could also see higher prices on other Chinese imports such as fish and children’s apparel, but the big price gains in toys could be more jolting.
China Appoints Tough Anti-Poison Czar
By 9.15.07
Meet Wu Yi. The 68-year old Vice Premier, the highest ranking woman in the Communist Party, has been tasked with one mission: toss the Chinese Poison Train back into the rapidly industrializing nation’s toy-chest.
Federal Government Boldly Declares: "It Is Impossible To Inspect Our Way To Safety"
By 9.15.07
Inspections will not keep Americans safe from potentially dangerous foreign imports, according to a Presidential working group representing 12 federal agencies. The working group believes that the sheer number of products arriving at our ports – goods worth $2 trillion, last year – make the development and deployment of an inspection regime impossible. The alternative inspires little confidence.
By 9.13.07
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Back to Basics IT400 Iced Tea Makers (fire), Harry and David Hearthside Soups, Southwestern Chicken Chili Mix (undeclared milk).
By 9.12.07
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Organic Pastures Dairy Company Grade A raw cream (Listeria monocytogenes), Great Wall Brand Chinese Wolfberry (undeclared sulfites), Cook’s Essentials Convection Ovens with Pull-Out Rotisserie and Deni Convection Ovens with Rotisserie (fire, electrical shock)
Design Flaws In Toys Cause Far More Injuries Than Lead
By 9.12.07
Lead isn’t what you need to watch out for with American toys—it’s design flaws and the policies of irresponsible toy companies, says E. Marla Felcher on Slate. One study “recently found that of all the toys recalled since 1988, 76 percent involved design flaws. Kids choked, were strangled, and were burned by toy makers’ design mistakes.”
The reason so many toys were recalled this summer is not that there weren’t enough regulations. It’s that toy makers were ignoring the regulations that are already on the books. And the new testing proposal won’t stop them from continuing to do so.
Liveblogging The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing On Toy Safety
By 9.12.07
Today is a big day for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). Starting at 11am, the Chairman of the powerful Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government will kick off a series of hearings examining the toy industry’s seemingly magnetic attraction to lead paint. Durbin, whose Subcommittee has jurisdiction over the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s budget, will grill toy industry representatives, consumer advocates, and members of the government over plans to protect America’s children from the dangers silently lurking on toy shelves by establishing an independent testing regime.
By 9.10.07
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A family in Hainan, China worried that it had a tainted bottle of water on its hands, so it gave the water to a pet chicken; the chicken died “within a minute.” We smell a new export opportunity here for Chinese manufacturers—your very own house chicken to peck out any tainted toys, toothpaste, or pet food. And maybe it can sniff the popcorn, too. Reuters already made a chicken-choking joke, so we’ll pass. [Reuters]
U.S. & China Meet To Discuss Product Safety
By 9.10.07
Today begins the Sino-US Consumer Product Safety Summit, “an effort to sooth the black eyes that China and the U.S. are sporting after months of revelations that China is sending tainted products to the U.S. and the federal government has been doing little about it,” writes Dennis Rockstroh on his San Jose Mercury News blog.
By 9.10.07
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Graco, Comfortsport, Cosco, Eddie Bauer, Safety 1st (check specific models, strap slippage), Shaw’s Fresh Ground Round Beef Patties (e.coli), Jensen’s Seattle Style Wild Smoked Salmon Spread Lemon Dill and Onion, PCC brand Smoked Salmon Spread (Listeria monocytogenes), Zencore Tabs (potentially harmful, undeclared ingredients).
By 9.6.07
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Hayes Company “Avant Yarde” Decorative Glaze Outdoor Candles (fire, burn), Melanocorp Melanotan II (pretending their drug is FDA approved, when it’s not).
Children, Crocs And Escalators Combine To Produce Mangled Feet
By 9.6.07
Crocs are both extremely popular and extremely good at gripping surfaces, which can become a problem when they are combined with small children and moving escalators.
By 9.5.07
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Accessory Toys (lead), Fisher Price Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys (lead), Fisher-Price Recalls Geo Trax Locomotive Toys (lead), NettoCollection “Moderne” and “Loft” Cribs (entrapment, strangulation), d-Scan Jubee Bunk Beds (collapse). Mattel’s CEO appeared in a new apology video, featuring shots of people in lab coats going through the motions of testing toys (we like how the guy in the beginning nods his head as he writes down a figure, nice lil piece of overacting there).
Dell Laptop Catches Fire In Shanghai Office
By 9.5.07
Just when you thought it was safe taste to eat a pomegranate… a Dell laptop catches fire and self destructs! This time, on 9/03, in a Shanghai office.
