July 23, 2001
The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Washington, DC 20510-6125
Dear Mr. Chairman:
As representatives of organizations
concerned with protecting consumers and children, we write to express our
opposition to the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall to be the Chairman of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission. We fear that if she becomes the chairman,
this critical safety agency will abdicate its responsibility to protect children.
During her ten years as a commissioner
on the CPSC, Gall has repeatedly refused to act when faced with evidence of
deaths and injuries to children from dangerous products, often blaming the
parents, not the products. She has gone so far as to criticize her fellow
CPSC commissioners of issuing proclamations "on behalf of the federal
Nanny State." At her 1999 confirmation hearing, Gall stated, "I
frequently have read Commission incident reports where innocent young children
suffer serious injury because of neglect by their caregivers. In such cases,
I believe it is inappropriate …to consider the product involved to contain
a serious defect warranting agency intervention." In other words, Gall
would have the nation's product safety agency turn its back on "innocent"
children because, in her opinion, their parents may not provide all the attention
and care that Gall deems necessary. Such an approach to consumer safety is
dramatically out of step with the clear intent of the Consumer Product Safety
Act.
Examples of Commissioner Gall's
voting record show how her laissez-faire approach would fail to protect children:
· By 1994,
baby walker injuries had reached 28,000 per year. That same year, two commissioners
voted for a safety standard for baby walkers. Gall was the lone vote against
the standard, saying caregivers were failing to provide "adequate supervision."
After the Commission voted to consider mandatory standards, over her objection,
manufacturers voluntarily redesigned baby walkers and by the year 1999, injuries
had fallen by almost 60 percent.
· Between 1990 and 1998, 89 children died using bunk beds, in many
cases because their heads become entrapped in rails that were spaced too far
apart. In 1999, two commissioners supported a government standard for bunk
beds designed to prevent these deaths. Gall was the lone vote against the
standard, voicing her view that the real cause of these deaths were parents
who inappropriately placed children under four years old in upper bunks.
· From 1985 to 1996, CPSC received 138 reports of slats in cribs coming
loose and creating strangulation hazards. Indeed, over this period 12 children
strangled to death and another 5 were injured when their heads broke through
the broken slats. In 1996, two commissioners voted to initiate a standard
for crib slats. Once again, Gall was the lone vote against it, calling a standard
"premature."
· In 1994 Gall refused to support CPSC regulation of baby bath seats,
despite 14 deaths and 7 near-drowning accidents. Her "no action"
view prevailed and the agency didn't intervene. Seven years later, 78 children
had died while these seats were in use. Gall reversed her position in a May
2001 vote as controversy about her nomination was building, but even then
she told the Washington Post, "This was a tough vote for me; it was a
struggle.")
In each of these cases, Commissioner
Gall opposed agency action even in the face of continuing deaths and injuries
to children. In her publicly expressed opinions, it was the parents' fault,
and that was the end of it. But it is not the job of the Consumer Product
Safety Commission to decide who is a good parent and who is not. Children
are involuntary risk-takers and the CPSC was established to protect children
and other vulnerable consumers from death or injury by setting sensible safety
standards and recalls that reduce or eliminate unreasonable risks. If she
were to become chairman, Gall's doctrine would likely require unsuspecting
consumers to change their behavior to adapt to dangerous products rather than
pressing manufacturers to produce safer products in the first place.
We fear that if Gall becomes chairman,
the agency will leave many children behind. For the sake of the nation's children
and other consumers, we urge you to oppose the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall
to be the Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Sincerely,
James A. Guest
President
Consumers Union
|
Marian Wright Edelman
President
Children's Defense Fund |
Gene Karpinski
Executive Director
U.S. Public Interest
Research Group |
