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Deadlines approach to implement new law on lead and phthalates in toys. Learn more!
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This morning President Bush signed landmark product safety reform legislation into law. Learn more!
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The House and Senate versions of the product safety bill (HR 4040) are not the same, and the differences matter.
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Andrew Hartung came to Washington D.C. on February 7th to make sure baby products don’t hurt babies. It seems obvious – but will take major reform. So he joined several other families on the Hill to tell the press and Senators how the reforms they are now considering would keep kids safe.
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From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: We can’t remember a year when product safety garnered so much public attention. Consumer confidence was shaken as we saw recall after recall on toys, tires, toothpaste, and more. We dubbed 2007 “The Year of the Recall.”
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From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: Candles and holidays go together like Santa and cookies, Chanukah and dreidels. Unfortunately, the candle combination can be a dangerous one when the candles are used carelessly. Just how dangerous? Take the quiz below to find out.
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From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: Less than two weeks after Fisher-Price removed a lead-tainted red blood pressure cuff from sale in Illinois because the plaything violated that state's lead standards, the Illinois attorney general has announced the same action for a green blood-pressure cuff that is part of another Fisher-Price medical kit.
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From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: While toys with lead paint and tiny magnets have gotten a lot of attention this year, statistics released today by the Consumer Product Safety Commission serve as a sobering reminder that the simple and most classic of toys—balloons, tricycles, scooters and balls—are often just as hazardous.
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CU asks Presidential Candidates to publicly support real food safety and product safety reform.
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From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: Nancy Baker never envisioned becoming a leading advocate for safer pools and spas. However, the tragic accident that killed her 7-year old daughter Graeme in 2002 prompted her to act. As she says, “It helps me make some sense of something that makes no sense at all. It was an utterly preventable and senseless death.”
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Parents have a lot of questions right now about lead in toys and other products, and want to know what to do. Brett Levy over at DadTalk interviewed me and asked some great questions.
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If you are left feeling a bit scared and confused shopping for children this holiday season, you are not alone. So far this year there have been tens of millions of toys recalled due to lead paint, small magnets, or toxic chemicals.
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On the eve of the biggest shopping day of the year, bloggers are talking up our "12 Days of Safe Shopping"!
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It is unusual for Washington DC lawmakers to shed ideological baggage and work across the aisle to get something done--especially during Presidential primary season. But that's what we need to make products safer. Republicans must agree that an unrestrained "free market" got us into this mess, and Democrats must set aside protectionism and focus on a systematic approach to making products safer, wherever they are made. That's what appears to be happening in Washington this month.
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So let's recap. Retailers and manufacturers are taking a look at items on store shelves. That's great. They continue to find more items with lead-laden paint, particularly those plastic buckets we buy for our kids to use trick-or-treating. That's not so great.
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Today's Washington Post (requires registration) reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has decided to oppose legislation giving it more staff, increased authority, and greater transparency. According to the agency, these things will make us less safe.
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Three of the five home lead-testing kits we tested at Consumer Reports were useful though limited screening tools if you are worried about specific items in your home. The kits detect surface, or “accessible,” lead. They don’t detect lead embedded below the surface. If an item tests positive, remove it from use. For exact lead levels, have it screened professionally.
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Are we better off than Americans in 1936? Certainly, in most respects, we are. But the recent rash of toy recalls sent me to the archives for an old Consumer Reports story, our inaugural test of toys for lead in the paint and structural metal. This was our top finding:
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Mattel announced hopefully, in this week's Wall Street Journal, that your anxiety about unsafe toys is abating. With new recalls of lead-laden toys one after the other (WalMart toy animals yesterday, J.C. Penney's Winnie-the-Pooh toys last week), and companies scrambling to test the imported toys arriving on our shores daily, the optimism seems premature. Do you feel safe yet?
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The New York Times last week reported on Japan's tough new ways to ensure the safety of food imports from China. The results look promising.
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Things haven’t been easy lately for Nancy Nord, the Acting Chair of the CPSC. This was apparent at a Senate hearing last month when she asked in the middle of her testimony if she could leave the hearing and follow commissioner Thomas Moore to his dentist appointment. “It's a sad day," Nord said, "when you'd rather go to the dentist."
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Last month, toymaker RC2 of Oakbrook, Ill. recalled its "Toad" train car due to excess lead. This product had been sent to families to replace a toy previously recalled for unsafe levels of lead.
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