NAM Continues to Petition CPSC as Recalls Continue
The debate over the strict lead and phthalate guidelines in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) continues.
The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement on March 24 in response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s March 20 letter to Congress. NAM and many other industry groups oppose the CPSC’s Improvement Act, which went into effect in August and has staggered deadlines for new lead and phthalate bans. In the letter, NAM President John Engler urged the CPSC to hold public hearings and reasserted that the CPSIA is flawed.
“By the CPSC’s own account, implementation of the new law has overwhelmed the agency and jeopardized its ability to meet safety priorities,” Engler wrote. “The law’s overly broad approach applies to products that should not be evaluated using the same safety criteria as products that do pose a risk. It is critical that the CPSC focus on improving safety.” The law’s timeline of deadlines also tripped up manufacturers and retailers, he said, “causing massive disruptions to industries across the board, particularly small- and medium-sized companies.”
The letter also points to a recent ban on children’s all-terrain vehicles, which were found to have lead in some of their parts. The ban is still in place, despite the fact that the lead-containing parts are only a health risk if ingested. “The CPSC staff agrees that banning these products will result in more children using adult-size ATVs as a substitute, which will pose ’far graver and more immediate risk,’” Engler said. He also pointed to more items that may be on the chopping block under the CPSIA, including ball-point pens, bicycles, safety apparel and older library books.
Elsewhere, retailers are recalling children’s products that don’t meet the CPSIA’s stringent new lead requirements. Earlier this month, Amazon.com announced a recall of approximately 2,500 products in its toy and baby categories for which the online retailer had not received certificates of compliance with the CPSIA’s lead and phthalate limits. All orders of the recalled products were cancelled and their detail pages were removed from the site, a statement from Amazon said. Similarly, 31,000 pairs of girls’ shoes were recalled by Nordstrom for surface paint on the outer sole that contained excessive levels of lead. The private-label shoes were imported from China and were sold exclusively at the department store from September 2006 through February 2009. Also in March, Brazilian flip-flop maker Havaianas saw 210,000 children’s sandals recalled after decorative paint that was used on the sole was found to contain lead. —Erin Barajas
