Associated Press House bans lead from toys

Tag : lead rubber
WASHINGTON – Alarmed by a year of recalls targeting millionsof tainted toys, the House voted overwhelming Wednesday to ban leadand other dangerous chemicals from items such as jewelry and rubberducks that could end up in kids' mouths.
The legislation also would toughen rules for testing children'sproducts and take steps to give more muscle to the Consumer ProductSafety Commission, which was criticized last year for its feeblehandling of a flood of goods from China deemed hazardous tochildren.
“It should be a given that toys are not dangerous,”House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in welcoming legislation that waslauded by lawmakers and consumer groups as one of the mostfar-reaching product safety bills in decades.
With the bill, said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, top Republican on theEnergy and Commerce Committee, “our children's toys will betested in the laboratory before they are tested by our children onthe living room floors of America.”
The bill, a product of House-Senate negotiations, would impose thetoughest lead standards in the world, banning lead beyond minutelevels in products for children 12 or younger.
It would also ban children's products – either permanently orpending further study – containing six types of phthalates,which are chemicals that are found in plastics and suspected ofposing health risks.
The 424-1 vote sends the measure to the Senate, which could approveit before Congress leaves for its August recess at the end of thisweek. The White House has voiced opposition to parts of thelegislation but has not threatened a veto.
The bill would require third-party testing for many children'sproducts before they are marketed, a key change in monitoringpractices following a year in which 45 million toys and children'sproducts – 30 million from China – were recalled.
Those included lead-contaminated children's jewelry,“Spider-Man 3” flashing rings and Halloween pails.
“Third-party testing is a centerpiece of the new law”and a victory for consumers, said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer programdirector of U.S. PIRG, a grass-roots environmental organization.
The bill would double the budget of the Consumer Product SafetyCommission, to $136 million by 2014, and give it new authority tomonitor testing procedures and impose civil penalties on violators.The CPSC was founded in 1973 with a staff of about 800. It nowemploys about half that number, while imports have vastlyincreased.
It also would boost whistle-blower protections to encourage peopleto report hazards to the CPSC and would direct the agency to set upa database where consumers, government agencies, child careproviders or doctors could report incidents of injury, illness,death or risk related to products.
One of the more controversial provisions is the ban on six types ofphthalates, the chemicals used in a wide range of plastic products.They are used to make toys such as rubber ducks and bath books softand flexible.
Tests on rats have found links to possible reproductive systemproblems for males and the onset of early puberty for females, andthe European Union has banned the six.
The Breast Cancer Fund noted that when children put these toys intheir mouths, phthalates can easily leach from toy to child. Thebill, said the fund's director of program and policy, JanetNudelman, is “a first, important step toward reforming theway chemicals are regulated in this country.”
Ami Gadhia of Consumers Union said infants are also exposed tophthalates through teethers and health care products. While thereis no conclusive evidence that the chemical causes health problemsin humans, she said a recent study found that mothers reported useof infant lotion, infant powder and shampoo was significantlyassociated with phthalate urinary concentrations.
But phthalates, said Sharon Kneiss of the American ChemistryCouncil, “are an important part of our everyday lives. Thereis no scientific basis for Congress to restrict phthalates fromtoys and children's products.”
Under the new third-party testing regimen, a standards organizationoverseen by the CPSC would set up and run a mandatory protocol thattesting labs would have to meet to certify a product. No coveredchildren's product or toy could be imported without a certificationmark.
The negotiators also resolved to make more products now covered byvoluntary industry standards subject to mandatory standards. Thatstep added several potential toy hazards, including goodscontaining small magnets that were included in products recalledlast year, subject to third-party testing requirements.
Among other provisions, the bill requires the CPSC to adopt safetystandards on all-terrain vehicles and close a loophole in whichcribs sold secondhand were not subject to the same standards as newcribs.