Good News for Consumers -- Congress Reforms the CPSC -- Food Safety Must Be Next

On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (the "Act"). This legislation, sponsored by Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), comes a year after last summer's recalls of millions of toys. It took the recalls and the deaths and hospitalizations of children resulting from magnets, collapsing cribs, lead trinkets, and toys filled with poisonous liquids to spur the federal government into action. The Chicago Tribune deserves great credit for initially focusing public attention on dangerous toys in the spring of 2007.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was founded in the early 1970s but its power and budget languished in a political climate which has favored less government regulation of economic activity. In recent years, the CPSC has not been effective in protecting consumers from businesses which did not assure the quality and safety of their products.

Highlights of the Act include: bans on lead and phthalates in children's products; pre-sale testing by independent laboratories; more resources and legal powers for the CPSC; stricter penalties for companies that violate consumer product safety laws; and more authority for state attorneys general to protect consumers in their states. All of these provisions build on past quality assurance and legal strategies for consumer protection.

There are two new provisions in the Act which could prove to be game changers because they empower consumers and employees. First, consumers will now have a publicly accessible database to report and learn about hazards posed by unsafe products. This will enable Americans to find out about bad products early on - not months after injuries are reported to the CPSC and a public recall is conducted. Secondly, employees working in companies and other organizations, who see dangerous products being distributed to the public, will have a chance to warn regulators and be legally protected from employer retaliation. Congress has previously protected whistleblowers working at nuclear plants, for government contractors, and in financial reporting situations. Now for the first time, employees who have been powerless to persuade their organizations to put safety first, will be able to protect the public, without having to suffer retaliation from their employer, such as, negative performance reviews, demotions, salary cuts, and even loss of their jobs.

At a time in our history, when our federal government has been so dysfunctional on so many fronts, Congress finally came together to pass a new law to protect American children from dangerous and defective toys, baby bottles, and other children's articles. The lobbyists who attempted to weaken the final bill were defeated.

Of course, opponents of the Act are predicting more lawsuits to result from it. The truth is that businesses which invest time and money in quality assurance and product safety can successfully defend lawsuits. The fact that this reform legislation was sorely needed after so many defective products were recalled in 2007 (and earlier) shows that the philosophy of unfettered markets is badly discredited. Just like sporting competitions need referees and judges, our capitalist marketplace needs to have sensible and pro-active regulation that punishes the bad actors, rewards ethical companies, and protects all consumers, especially our littlest ones.

Congress must turn its attention to food safety. Even though many bills have been filed since the 2006 and 2007 recalls of spinach and pet food, our food safety problems have continued to escalate this year. We have endured the tomato and serrano pepper salmonella fiasco. We have been harmed by the huge meat recalls originating from plants in California, Iowa and Nebraska; places where illegal child labor and exploitation of immigrants, animal cruelty and unsanitary packing processes have taken place. The time for action on food safety is now.

Comments

[itolduso]

Outrage...that tens of thousands of vehicles with multiple safety recalls are still allowed to be sold. "Three strikes & you're out" only applies to individuals. Outrage....that bridges collapse, cement ceiling panels fall from new tunnels, pipes under our streets explode, and our power grids and infrastructure crumbles and fails......and no one is held accountable. Outrage.... that a real estate appraiser can triple the value on a home in 6 months, and collect his fee, that a local agent can market that home knowing what it sold for half a year earlier, and collect her fee, that a mortgage company can put together a 'no-doc' interest-only loan that will reset in a year at a 15% rate for a buyer with no assets, and collect his fee, and the bank that packages that high-risk loan and sells it to a pension fund, and collects it fee...... and government officials that can justify bailing out the appraisers, the agents, the mortgage companies & the banks.... but balk at helping the homeowners and pensioners. Where is the outrage?

[SusieHoeller]

Just like in the 1980s S&L fiasco, some of the housing industry thieves will end up in jail and then the mortage industry will clean up for awhile. Then greed will kick in again and we will probably see another real estate crash again in the future. The underlying cause of all of this is greed - everyone wants more- investors want ever higher returns, individuals want more income and larger homes, and on and on. It is very depressing and as you rightly say, "where is the outrage?"

[itolduso]

It appears to me to be just another fast switch in the ongoing 'shell game'. So now we're supposed to be reassured by the fact that known harmful substances are specifically banned from children's toys. I find little comfort in the knowledge that manufacturers are only restrained by the regulations that can be thought up & pushed through by the limited imaginations of the bureaucrats in charge of public safety. What happened to "a reasonable expectation" of safety? To businesses standing by their products? Accountability? Reputation? A cement company owner that substituted an inferior aggregate in the mix to save a few bucks on a high-rise or tunnel project would face CRIMINAL charges in the past-would be black-balled from the industry-the company out of business, their reputation destroyed. These days it's just 'business as usual' -some insurance company would pay up- it wouldn't even make 'the news'. How many pets died when our top pet food manufacturers & distributors slapped their names on the cheapest mix of ingrediants without ever knowing or caring whether it was harmful-how many went out of business? how many went to jail or even paid a fine? They paid fortunes to promote their brands and never bothered to check what went into it?! It's not unenforced laws that will protect us-it's outrage. Unfortunately, we don't have enough.

[SusieHoeller]

I agree with you that there is not enough outrage expressed by consumers because so many people are really apathetic about the safety of the food they eat, the products they buy and the public infrastructure they use. Or if not apathetic, they feel overwhelmed and powerless to influence change. They don't realize how they could spend their money more wisely to reward good companies and not buy from with companies that do not invest in quality and safety assurance and embody high business ethics. The new law does impose much more significant penalties on manufacturers, importers and sellers of defective and dangerous consumer products. Hopefully, this will be a greater deterrent to businesses who do not put safety first. Last year, I wrote a small consumer advisory book, "RECALL, Food and Toy Safety: An American Crisis". It is available on amazon. In the book, I made recommendations for consumers, businesses and regulators to improve quality and safety. You might be interested in it. In some cases, criminial prosecutions as well as civil penalties are needed.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

The Mexican pepper fiasco unfolding illustrates that our food safety has been farmed out.The FDA, USDA, OSHA, CDC, and other regulatory agencies have been headed by cronies, had their budgets slashed and took their eye off the ball for the whole Bush Administration.

[SusieHoeller]

Paul,
thanks for your comment. In addition to the regulatory incompetence and inattention, many food companies (not all) have not been willing to invest in traceability and quality assurance.