At any given time another 'consumer interest group' like PIRG, Public Citizen, NRDC, or others can file suit to force CPSC to lift the stay, and they would probably win, just like PC and NRDC filed suit in November or December and won this week, making the phthalates ban apply to inventory.
At any given time, the President can replace Nord on the Commission and /or appoint from 1 to 5 new members- he has the authority to bring the total to five, and the new people could completely reverse everything the Commission has said so far, without much more fanfare than announcing (probably via the website) their new policy change, voting on it, taking public comment for 30 days, and then going ahead with the new policy.
Many people people are counting on President Obama to fix this, but the Presidency can be a very isolated position. I am not sure he's been given enough information to even know all sides. He's definitely heard from Waxman et al that this is all the CPSC's fault and none of Congress's. I am pretty sure that groups like PIRG and Public Citizen have his ear. I am not sure about the rest of us.
Bottom line- the stay is a huge bit of breathing room, but the situation is still deeply erratic, unstable, and risky, and the law itself still needs to be changed. The fact that it's been nearly impossible to get our reps to even read our letters and send replys that have something to do with what we said, the fact that the recent lawsuit overturned another policy of the Commission's, etc, indicates just how hard it is to change a law, and how easy to change a policy.
In Balitmore:
Even without enforcing the law for books, undyed textiles and products made of natural materials, the commission will probably find many items on store shelves that violate the law, said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, Baltimore's commissioner of health.
In an effort to make retailers comply with a Maryland law, his office has been going to stores and testing children's products for lead. It often finds jewelry and toys that exceed the safety standard, he said.
On Thursday, the agency issued notices about four jewelry products that exceeded the limit. One contained 87,800 ppm and another 571,000 ppm, nearly 1,000 times the standard set by the consumer law.
Just a reminder that the Commission specifically exempted several items from the stay, and jewelry was one of them, with good reason.
In Connecticut:
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today praised a federal court that that compels toy manufacturers to remove toys from store shelves containing harmful chemicals known as phthalates.
The decision vindicates a letter that Blumenthal wrote to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), followed by a legal brief in court, last year.
Conecticut's AG, who is not bound by the CPSC's stay, warns toymakers, bib makers, decorators of bibs and all manufacturers (under the law that includes decorators of pre-made t-shirts and baby clothes as well as the makers of the t-shirts):
My office will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this phthalate ban is enforced."
The author of this editorial objects to Blumenthal's crusade:
Blumenthal’s interpretation of the law has a serious, widespread, negative impact on small businesses and the working poor across Connecticut, an impact he failed to mention on Thursday in his gloating about defending babies against evil toy makers.
Consignment shops and used children’s stores from Torrington to Bridgeport, from Goodwill and the Salvation Army to Just for Kids, are now in the apparent position of either testing for “phthalates,” pulling practically all used toys from their shelves, or risking prosecution.
Not having a “phthalates” testing kit handy, of course, most will just pull them from the shelves.
The fact that 99 percent of what is on shelves is absolutely fine, and no one can measure worth a darn the impact that the remaining 1 percent will have on anyone, isn’t as important as getting our attorney general on the nightly news.
Public Citizen continues its misleading hissy fit. Pin It
