Question of the Week: Lead in Children’s Products
These questions are culled from phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails sent to my Thousand Oaks, Solvang, and Washington offices. Each week I will add another question and answer.
Week of April 17, 2009
• Question: The new Consumer Product Safety Commission restrictions are unnecessarily hurting thrift stores, charities and off-road vehicle dealers. What is Congress doing to fix this?
→ Answer: As you may know, President Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 into law on August 14, 2008. The legislation reauthorized and increased funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) through 2011. It also implemented stricter standards on the amount of lead allowed in children’s products. The legislation also required manufacturers of children’s products containing any amount of lead to have their products tested by a qualified independent third party to certify the product meets child safety standards.
Since being implemented there have been innumerable stories about how the unintended consequences of this legislation has wreaked havoc on individuals and small businesses. In response to these problems, I have become an original cosponsor of H.R. 1815, the Consumer Product Safety Solutions Act of 2009. This legislation clarifies the standards for children’s toys, apparel and other goods meant for children; adjusts deadlines to reflect marketplace realities; and gives the CPSC the flexibility to protect children from real harm while effectively regulating the market.
More specifically, this legislation would allow for component part testing for both lead and phthalate, would create regulatory flexibility in the labeling provisions, and create a broader exemption for products that cannot meet lead standards when this exemption would better preserve child safety. This last exemption would apply to motocross, snowmobiles, 4-wheel ATV’s, and any other children’s off-road vehicle because children are less likely to suffer from lead exposures on these vehicles than they are to suffer serious harm from using the same vehicles made for adults.
Rep. Joe Barton introduced H.R. 1815 on March 31, 2009. This legislation has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, of which I am not a member. As an original cosponsor of this legislation, you can be assured that I will do my utmost to see it become law.
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