For those following the ongoing toy safety investigation, more developments this week:
“Aggressive is the last word I’d use to describe the CPSC,” Janice Schakowsky, D-Illinois.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee began a two-day hearing today, featuring consummate blame shifter Nancy Nord, the weary-sounding acting head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission; Mattel’s CEO Robert Eckert, and CPSC commissioner Thomas Moore. The good people at Consumerist are live-blogging the proceedings. (If you recall, a Senate committee met last week to query Nord and others regarding the millions of recalled toys from China this year.)
Nord clarified a statement from last week about how many toy testers and inspectors the agency employs. While Bob, the sole toy drop tester, was mentioned again, she said there were 34 people total at the agency labs that do toy and other consumer product inspections, including lead paint testing.
Many on the panel asked Nord what she needed in terms of budget and personnel to do a better job, saying they would do their best to give the CPSC what it needs. However, Nord never stepped up with numbers on personnel or budget, although she admitted that the agency needs to be more “creative” in its enforcement. Commissioner Moore later said, when asked directly, that he would like 500 staffers at least.
Nord also was asked about a recent Wall Street Journal article in which Mattel’s CEO says the company discloses toy problems on its own timetable because it considers the law and the CPSC’s enforcement practices unreasonable. Nord said today when when she read the piece, ”I scratched my head.” She called his comment an “incredibly reckless thing to say” and said that an ongoing investigation is open into this matter. “If the company feels they can flout the law, they are sadly mistaken.”
(Later at the hearing, Mattel CEO Eckert was asked directly to explain his comments in the WSJ article and he distanced himself from them. ”That’s not what I said, that’s not how I feel,” he said. “Our actions reflect that.”)
Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, compared the CPSC to the children’s story, The Little Engine that Could, but called it, “The Little Agency that Can’t.” He blamed the Bush administration, in part, for the agency’s budget woes.
Several revelations came out as part of pre-hearing questioning by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) of companies who had recalled lead paint-tainted toys:
- It was revealed that some of Mattel’s recalled toys had up to 180 times the legal US lead paint content level, about 11% lead. Some jewelry from Oriental Trading Co. were nearly 100% lead, reportedly poisonous enough to kill a child who has swallowed them. Exposure to high levels of lead paint by children has been shown to cause learning disabilites, brain damage, and, in certain circumstances, fatal poisoning.
- Retailers have found and taken off the shelves a number of lead-contaminated products, but have not notified consumers. Investigators have found Target, Dollar General, and Limited Too participated in such recalls.
Stay tuned, as the investgations continue.
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