Dangerous Toxins Found in Toys
After eight long years in the wilderness, the U.S. is finally paying attention to product safety. Congress is poised to implement the biggest overhaul to U.S. product safety rules in a generation. Since 2000, the U.S. has seen dangerous products imported from China, India, and other foreign countries that while certainly cheaper than similar products made to stricter standards, caused untold suffering to the people who were injured by these products. Let's see, in the past few years we've seen recalls of Chinese food products, poisonous toothpaste, children's pajamas, cheap all terrain vehicles, fax machines that catch fire, children's dolls painted with lead contaminated paint, etc.
Now comes a big fat "DUH" in the form of significant research showing that toxic chemicals in plastics used in toys may be extremely dangerous. Okay, first let's explore the word "toxic." Webster's defines toxic as "containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation." Does that sound healthy to you? The government has known these plastics contained toxic chemicals for decades. And no one ever bothered to think they may cause health problems? Go figure.
Apparently a child can chew on a toy as seemingly harmless as a rubber duck and ingest these, which apparently act as hormones and can cause reproductive problems, especially in boys.
Enough is enough. We depend on our government and its various regulatory agencies to keep us safe from harmful products. I for one am glad that the government is finally taking this issue seriously.
Product-Safety Bill Emerges in Congress
Wall Street Journal
July 29, 2008 7:08 a.m.House and Senate negotiators late yesterday reached a deal for a ban on certain toxins found in toys and a strengthening of the government's ability to police consumer products, a blow to the chemicals industry following a series of high-profile recalls and health warnings.
The bill, which has Democratic and Republican support, would outlaw all but minute amounts of lead in children's products and ban from toys and other objects meant for children the ubiquitous family of chemicals known as phthalates. It would also require third-party testing of some children's products and bolsters the Consumer Product Safety Commission's authority to inspect manufacturers' labs. The bill "would have significant implications for U.S. consumers, whose homes are filled with hundreds of plastic products designed for children that may be causing dangerous health effects," the Washington Post reports. "The rare action by Congress reflects a growing body of scientific research showing that children ingest the toxins by acts as simple as chewing on a rubber duck. Used for decades in plastic production, the chemicals are now thought to act as hormones and cause reproductive problems, especially in boys."
The House-Senate agreement suggests the political shift toward consumer safety -- fueled by nearly two years of warnings about product dangers, including a host of imports from China -- hasn't lost momentum this election year. And it "also signals an important crack in the chemical industry's ability to fend off federal regulation," the Post says, noting that until yesterday the measure had bogged down in the House, where Exxon Mobil and other phthalate producers waged an expensive battle against the measure. Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and Target are among the retailers that had already begun to remove potentially dangerous products from their shelves and initiated their own testing regimes, The Wall Street Journal notes. President Bush has expressed support for overhauling the nation's consumer-protection system, but a White House spokesman tells the Post it is too early to say if the legislation could draw a veto.
©2008 Angel Reyes
www.ReyesLaw.com
