Just say no to "Made IN China":
Commentary and Opinion Pieces

<<Critics say the Stand ’n Seal case demonstrates how the Consumer Product Safety Commission is too overwhelmed with reports of injuries and with new hazards to comprehensively investigate or follow up on many complaints.>>  Let's see... could it be they are understaffed, under-budgeted and maybe need some help to protect us?  Continue reading below...

Despite Ms. Nord's objections, Congress increased the commission's budget by 30% before adjoining for the year thankfully! (Source)

HUH??

<<Ms. Nord’s opposition to important elements of the legislation is consistent with the broadly deregulatory approach of the Bush administration over the last seven years. In a variety of areas, from antitrust to trucking and worker safety, officials appointed by President Bush have sought to reduce the role of regulation and government in the marketplace.>>

The legislation would have doubled the agency's budget over the next seven years to $141 million as well as raise the staffing levels by about 20% (staff numbers about 420, about half it was in the 1980s with only one full-time employee to test toys). Fifteen inspectors are assigned to police all imports of consumer products under the agency's supervision -- and not all products are under the agency's supervision that we consume - but with $614 billion in 2006, that makes each inspector responsible for inspecting $41 billion per year.

Let's figure this out now, and put it into numbers we can relate to.

• $614 billion split by 15 inspectors equals $41 billion per year each
• Let's say each imported 'widget' has an imported value of $.50
• That's 82 million widgets
• Even if the inspections were made by one widget per every 1,000, that's still 82,000 inspections
• 2,000 working hours per year (excluding the 80 hours per year for a vacation), that means each inspector has to inspect and approve about 41 shipments of 1,000 widgets every hour.... exactly how is this possible for any human to do?

Exactly who's side is she on?  Big business or the consumers?

In her letter, Ms. Nord criticized the provision to ban lead from all toys, saying it was not practical.  This is despite the fact China is the manufacturer of almost 80% of the U.S. imported toys - birth defects in China have increased by nearly 40 percent since 2001, now affecting nearly one in every 10 Chinese households. 

<<Consumer advocates also said they were stunned by the letter. “It was remarkable to send a letter like that to a committee, when you’re in dire straits and you need increased funding and you’ve acknowledged that,” said Ellen Bloom, director of federal policy at Consumers Union.>>

I'm beyond stunned.... 

<article excerpted - read it in its entirety HERE>

• WATER-PROOFING PRODUCTS STILL ON THE MARKET - December 27, 2007 - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is unnecessarily leaving the American public at risk through its failure to properly investigate a long-running series of lung injuries tied to widely available waterproofing sprays, public health officials from several states say.  (Source)
• WHERE ARE THESE RECALLED ITEMS?  Most of the unsafe toys and other products, it turns out, may still be in the hands of consumers.  American companies face strict federal regulations for disposing of recalled toys, but they are only responsible for the toys that show up. The other products left out there — and in many cases, that is more than 80 percent — fall out of their purview, a crack in the recall system that consumer advocates say leaves a giant question mark over the trail of recalled toys.  (Source)
• HOW EFFECTIVE ARE RECALLS? It has long been the case that product recalls generate dismal results. In the past, recalls have brought back 18 percent of products, on average, but low-priced toys and trinkets are returned at even lower rates — often less than 5 percent. Research firms found that some toys recalled this summer have appeared this fall on auction Web sites like eBay and other sites that sell products in bulk to businesses, including Made-in-China.com. Aubrey Liu, who works in Made-in-China’s Web operations department, said in an e-mail message that it was difficult for her department to pick out recalled products on her site because the Consumer Product Safety Commission does not include the names of manufacturers in recall notices.  (Source)
• There is no federal law or regulation against reselling recalled toys - a loophole that some legislators are trying to close.  (Source)

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