Yesterday, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) president John Engler issued the following statement commenting on the March 20 letter from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to Congress in response to questions posed by Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan).
The CPSC letter noted that implementation of the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Commission Improvement Act banning lead and phthalates from children’s toys has “impacted our ongoing safety mission by delaying and deferring work in many other areas.”
“The CPSC response to Congress clearly indicates that legislative changes are necessary to fix the flaws in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act,” said Engler.
By the CPSC’s own account, implementation of the new law has overwhelmed the agency and jeopardized its ability to meet safety priorities. The law’s overly broad approach applies to products that 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 unrealistic compliance deadlines made it impossible for industry or the CPSC to adequately prepare before the law went into effect. Its unprecedented decision to retroactively apply the new lead standards and phthalates ban to inventory already sitting in stores and warehouses is causing massive disruptions to industries across the board, particularly small and medium-sized companies.
Implementation has also followed a worst case scenario for manufacturers and their employees. This misguided law has triggered the destruction of millions of safe products, costing businesses billions of dollars during one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history. Youth model All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and dirt bikes are no longer available because of their lead content, even though they pose no risk to riders.
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.’ Ballpoint pens, bicycles, safe apparel, older library books and other products will also be unnecessarily banned if Congress does not act. Congress can no longer ignore the calls of thousands of small businesses and companies of all sizes to hold public hearings on this problem and fix the law.
The CPSC letter is available here.
