U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: More dangerous stuff from China blotter: lead in Fisher-Price Toys

Pictured is one of the million or so units of various licensed character toys from Fisher-Price/Mattel recalled today because of banned lead paint. When children are exposed to lead it causes chronic, cumulative developmental and brain disorders and lowers IQ. This is not new science.

If manufacturers want to stretch their supply chains all the way to China (and other places) to find lower-cost producers, then they'll need to spend more money making sure that the safety links in the chain don't break. Fisher-Price may have thought its modern factories were immune to the corruption and cost-cutting and cheating that seem to permeate the Chinese economy, but it needs to do a better job. A much better job.

But China is only part of the problem and Congress shouldn't forget that. Unfortunately, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) does not test all toys that enter the market. And if were required to, it wouldn't have the money, anyway.

CPSC enforces laws that require manufacturers, distributors, retailers and importers to guarantee that their products (toys and other products) entered into U.S. commerce (wherever they come from) meet U.S. safety rules, but doesn't have the resources or responsibility to test all products in advance. That's up to sellers. When the CPSC was established in 1974, it was given a budget of $34 million. That's $149 million in today's dollars, but its actual 2007 budget is only $63 million. Its staff of 400 is less than half its 1980 peak of 978, yet it now has global responsibilities. It's the little agency that couldn't.

While it has many dedicated career staff in the trenches, it has no leadership. It's a headless horseman. This president has made things worse, by nominating three bad candidates to run it. The first, Mary Sheila Gall, in 2001, was defeated in the Senate. The second, Hal Stratton, quit less than halfway through his lackluster term. And the president's latest nominee, Michael Baroody of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) withdrew his nomination under a potential ethical cloud. Three strikes and you're out, Mr. President.

On the positive side, a Senator Pryor (R-AR) amendment (Section 2204) to the 9/11 Commission bill, HR 1, which is on its way to the President's desk, temporarily grants the CPSC a quorum with only 2 commissioners, so it can again issue rules and impose penalties and invoke mandatory recalls. It lost those powers when Stratton quit over a year ago. (The Fisher-Price and other recalls have all been voluntary; these can be negotiated by staff.)

It's time to restore the CPSC to an agency that can protect the American people, especially kids, from dangerous products from China and everywhere else. Let's hope that this latest China syndrome serves as a reminder that our consumer product safety system is a house of cards. Dangerous products come from home and from China, and from Mexico and other places, too. CPSC is under-funded and under-led and it lacks the enforcement authority it needs to provide an adequate safety shield. Ideally, Congress will re-authorize the agency and give it better enforcement tools and more money.