• Home
• About Amy
• Serving Minnesotans
• About Minnesota
• Issues/ Legislation
• Media Center
• Contact Amy
• FAQ

News Releases

Klobuchar, Durbin Prod Consumer Product Safety Commission for Answers

Senators seek action from CPSC regarding toxic lead in toys

August 7, 2007

Washington, D.C. – Today Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Assistant Majority Leader, Senator Dick Durbin, sent a letter to the Acting Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), citing yesterday’s New York Times report on safety inspections that indicated more than twenty percent of toys manufactured in China posed a potential poisoning hazard.  They requested the inspection reports, an explanation of how the failures occurred, and the CPSC’s immediate action plan to ensure children’s products are lead-free.

“This summer alone has seen more than 2.5 million toy recalls – toys removed from our homes and our stores because they have been coated with poisonous and lethal lead paint,” said Klobuchar.  “We must get to the bottom of how this is happening and stop these unsafe toys from reaching our store shelves and our kid’s hands.  To get there, the CSPC needs to be more forthcoming about information regarding their investigations.”

Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate’s Commerce Committee, led the charge for Congressional hearings on Chinese imports, which were held on July 18th.  Klobuchar also hosted a toy safety forum in Minnetonka, Minnesota to examine the effects of tainted products from China.

"The CPSC gets a passing grade for the dedication of it's staff in protecting Americans," Durbin said. "But when it comes to CPSC's ability to stop unsafe products from reaching the market, they fall short.  All of this summer's recalled products have one thing in common, China. The CPSC needs more authority and more resources to protect consumers from dangerous products manufactured both overseas and at home."

Last month, Durbin introduced the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, will dramatically expand CPSC’s ability to protect American consumers. This bill increases the authorized funding level for the agency over the next five years, repeals the requirement that the CPSC have a quorum to engage in regulatory actions, decreases the amount of time that firms have to respond to the information CPSC releases, institutes a civil penalty for retailers that knowingly sell a recalled product, and increases maximum fine for violations.

Full text of the letter is below:

August 7, 2007

The Honorable Nancy Nord
Acting Chairman
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
4330 East West Highway
Bethesda, Maryland 20814


Dear Chairman Nord,

We are writing in response to yesterday’s story in the New York Times on the widespread presence of lead in children’s products and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) efforts to test for lead and pursue regulatory solutions to solve this problem.  According to the article, in recent testing of children’s jewelry products, CPSC officials found levels of lead exceeding federal standards in one out of every five samples collected.  We are concerned by these findings and we hope you can answer several questions below that will allow us to better understand the scope of this threat to child safety. 

The case cited in the article of the death of a four year-old boy from Minnesota who ingested a toy contaminated with lead demonstrates the risks of children’s products that do not meet federal lead standards.  The child died, not from choking on the toy, but because the charm was composed almost entirely of lead – enough to fatally poison him. In fact, the charm contained so much lead that tests later revealed that his blood lead level was three times higher than what health officials consider dangerous. 

For this reason, in multiple places, federal regulation and statute bans the use of lead paint in children’s toys.  For example, Title 16, Chapter II, Part 1303 of the Code of Federal Regulations (16 CFR 1303) bans “toys and other articles intended for use by children that bear lead-containing paint”.  In addition, the Hazardous Substances and Articles Administration and Enforcement Regulations (15 CFR 1500) bans the use of surface paints containing more than .05 percent lead in toys or other articles intended for use by children.  These regulations are referenced in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F963 Standard (Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety).

Given this risk profile, we were alarmed to learn from the New York Times article that 20 percent of the toys inspected by the CPSC in recent tests “posed a potential poisoning hazard.”  Parents have every right to expect that the toys they purchase are safe.  If the current federal lead standards and compliance and enforcement mechanisms are not sufficient to curb this public health issue, we believe the CPSC should implement tougher standards and penalties through a federal rulemaking or inform Congress of the need for legislation in this area.

We were further alarmed to learn that these unsafe toys were produced by Chinese manufacturers.  This summer alone, more than 2.5 million toys manufactured in China have been recalled due to lead contamination.  It is becoming clear that the Chinese regulatory system is not taking the dangerous risks lead poses to children seriously. In fact, the Deputy Director General of China’s General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has publicly disputed the scientifically proven fact that lead in children’s products poses a danger. Given the Chinese government’s weak regulatory environment and the fact that over eighty percent of toys sold in the U.S. are manufactured in China, it is incumbent upon the CPSC to exercise greater regulatory authority to ensure that these toys do not make it to store shelves.  It is also vital that the CPSC continue to make it a priority to work with its Chinese counterpart to reiterate the importance of product safety.

In addition, we ask that you provide us with following information:

1) Copies of the inspections report(s) and results and all related documents referenced in the New York Times article;

2) A detailed explanation of the industry and regulatory failures that have allowed such a large volume of children’s products contaminated with lead to enter into the stream of commerce; and

3) CPSC’s action plan to ensure that children’s products are lead-free, including specific steps the Commission is taking to prevent the production of these hazardous products, increase awareness of the federal standard, require third-party testing and verification of product safety, and impose penalties and other enforcement actions on violators. ,

We ask that you respond to this inquiry within two weeks.  Please contact Tamara Fucile of Senator Klobuchar’s staff, or David Lazarus of Senator Durbin’s staff if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Amy Klobuchar
Richard J. Durbin

###