Public Citizen

Reject Any Attempt to Weaken Consumer Safety!

Congress passed a law that would ensure that only safe products would be sold in the American marketplace. Congress answered the call and overwhelmingly passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The new law brought a number of much-needed and overdue protections for everyday consumers and their children, such as making sure children’s toys are tested and free from lead and other toxic chemicals.

But now, improved product safety is under attack. Industry groups are trying to repeal our hard-won safety standards.

Critical consumer protections must be implemented, not undermined. Attempts to amend the law could allow defective and dangerous products - from lead-painted toys to vacuum cleaners that catch fire - to stay on resellers' shelves. Industry groups claim that amending the law will help small businesses, but the CPSC can address small businesses' concerns without putting consumers at risk. In fact, any weakening of the safety standards would likely harm businesses because consumers are wary of buying products that could be unsafe.

We need you to stand up for product safety. Tell your members of Congress to reject any effort to repeal or weaken the consumer product safety law today!

April 22, 2018

Subject:

Dear member of Congress,

When Congress convincingly passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (89 to 3 in the Senate and 424 to 1 in the House), I could breathe easier knowing that this important new law would ensure the safety of all consumer products in the American marketplace, especially toys and other items purchased for children. So you can imagine my disappointment when I learned of an effort by industry groups to repeal parts of the CPSIA.  Any amendment could undermine many of the much-needed protections that the CPSIA provides.

We cannot roll back the safety standards to those of 2007, when a record number of product recalls was accompanied by an unacceptable number of injuries to children and other consumers. Consumer confidence in numerous products subsequently fell. Everyone suffered from the lax laws and minimal oversight.

The CPSIA makes consumer products safer by requiring that toys and infant products be tested before they are sold. It also requires a publicly accessible consumer complaint database; gives the oversight agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the resources it needs to protect the public; increases civil penalties that the CPSC can assess against violators of CPSC laws; and protects whistleblowers who report product safety defects. It is now the CPSC’s turn to implement the new law. It is also the CPSC’s job to appropriately respond to questions of compliance with the law’s provisions. Now is not the time to weaken vital safety standards, an action which would put consumers and children back in harm’s way.

As your constituent, I am asking you to reject amendments aimed at rolling back the benefits of the CPSIA.  Please ensure instead that the new law is properly implemented by the CPSC. Thank you.

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