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NEWS > 2004
In addition to providing information pertaining to our organization, KID provides brief updates on current children's product safety information and events.
Contents of this Issue:
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2004 December Email Alert
Since it first passed in Illinois in 1999, The Children's Product Safety Act has generated interest in other states as well.
It has also been enacted in Michigan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Vermont, Rhode Island and Missouri. It has been introduced in other
states over the years as well. Now, Kids In Danger is aware of sponsors for the act in 2005 in Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin and
possibly up to six more states. You can view the map of states which have already passed the act, or find out how you can help pass the legislation
in your state by visiting Kids In Danger's State Advocacy page.
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2004 November Email Alert
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Diego, Calif affirmed a $300,000 civil penalty against Mirama Enterprises Inc. Mirama, doing business as Aroma Housewares Co.,
failed to report problems with its electric juicers that shattered and injured consumers. Under the Consumer Product Safety Act, companies are required to
report potential product hazards. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission's Chairman, Hal Stratton, said of the ruling, "The Court agreed with CPSC that
companies must tell us about potentially dangerous products even before they are found to be defective and that companies are liable for reporting every
product they sell that poses a danger to consumers."
While the penalty provision is imperative for consumer safety, many consumer advocates believe that the current cap of $1.65 million limits the
effectiveness of the penalty. For many large corporations, the fine can be written off as a small cost of doing business and not an incentive to
self-report. KID and other advocates would like to see the penalty cap removed so that the size of the corporation can be taken into account with
the penalty.
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2004 October Email Alert
Linda Ginzel, KID co-founder and president, was the first to testify following US
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) chairman Hal Stratton at a Congressional hearing on
October 6. The House Sub-committee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held an oversight
hearing entitled, "Children's Product Safety: Do Current Standards Provide Enough Protection?"
At the end of Linda's testimony, it was clear the answer was an emphatic 'no.' While Chairman Stratton
left prior to the consumer and organizational testimony, Chairman Cliff Stearns and Ranking Member Jan
Schakowsky were visibly shaken by the flaws in the current children's product safety system that had
contributed to her son's death. Linda suggested three things CPSC could do to prevent more deaths: use
marketing and advertising to reach purchasers of products, rather than relying solely on the news media,
require product registration cards in all children's products, and notify licensed childcare facilities
of all recalls. Any one of these actions would have been enough to prevent Danny's death. Linda, as well
as others, also spoke of the major hurdle to safe products: lack of premarket safety testing.
In addition to Linda Ginzel, testimony was heard from Lisa Lipin whose son Andrew suffered injuries from
a yoyo water ball, E. Marla Felcher, author of It's No Accident: How Corporations Sell Dangerous Baby
Products, Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger and Rachel Weintraub, Assistant
General Counsel of Consumer Federation of America. Gary Klein spoke on behalf of the Toy Industry of America.
Read the testimony of each by clicking on their highlighted names. The full transcript should be available
soon at the Subcommittee's website.
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2004 June Email Alert
A recent Sydney Morning Herald five day series on children's product
safety highlights the fact that dangerous children's products are an
international concern. The articles address such issues as manufacturer's
awareness of faulty products and their lack of action. One example the first
article in the series cites is that of a Fisher-Price bath seat. The company
stopped selling its Stay 'n' Play bath seat in 1997, but did not recall those it
had already sold. In an email obtained by the Herald, Fisher-Price stated that
"we elected to exit the business rather than work to ensure that the product
could be manufactured in a way that could be considered safe." Not only does
this series of articles highlight the issues in children's product safety, but
suggests solutions such as new safety standards.
Read More >>.
Interested in subscribing to our Email Alerts, Click Here.
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2004 May
The past 30 days have marked a dramatic increase in recalls, once again
CPSC along with product safety organizations will assist resale, consignment,
and thrift stores in identifying
and pulling previously recalled or banned products from their shelves. Read More.
This is an important task since 70 percent of resale stores sold at least one
hazardous product. Children's products, including children's jackets and
sweatshirts with drawstrings which present a strangulation hazard, and cribs
that do not meet federal safety standards, comprise two of the three top
dangerous products found. Consumers can do their part by checking their
products before bringing them to a resale store or hosting a yard sale.
In Chicago: CPSC and SafeKids Coalition are holding workshops in
Chicago for resale shop owners. The first was held on May 10 in Hyde Park and
another is scheduled for May 20th on the near Northwest Side. Contact
Ashley Gold at Chicagoland SafeKids
Coalition for information.
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2004 April
The past 30 days have marked a dramatic increase in recalls, once again
highlighting the need for more stringent safety testing. The Tek Nek Toy
Corporation recalled over 70,000 ride-on toys after an 18-month-old boy died
from aspirating the screw that attaches the steering wheel to the toy. Since the
ride-on toys were sold under five model names, check to make
sure your child's ride-on toy was not recalled. It should not take a death to
make sure that your child's products are safe, especially since this is not an
isolated incident. In 2003 a 15-month-old had to be rushed to the emergency room
where x-rays showed that a screw from his Fisher Price
Farm had lodged in his trachea, and had to be removed by emergency surgery.
It is always important for parents and caregivers to keep up to date on recalled
products, and report any incidents
that may occur. Additionally, check your child's toys for missing or loose
pieces to prevent injuries.
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2004 March
Never use a shield-style booster seat, which have a horizontal,
padded, pop-down restraint bar that is supposed to replace the
protection of a safety belt. A new study in Pediatrics shows that
children are at nearly eight times the risk of serious injury when
riding in these seats. Crash tests showed that dummies weighing
less than 40 pounds were likely to be ejected, and that babies
had greater trauma to their upper body, abdomen, and head.
Based on these studies the American
Academy of Pediatrics
has discouraged the use of shield booster seats. Advocates against the
continued sale of this shield booster seat formed PACE,
Parents Against Cosco Explorers after 30 children
were injured and killed in it due to the poor safety design.
Read more.
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2004 February On February
23, 2004 KID released Safety Shortcuts: Children's Product Recalls of 2003,
examining the children's product recalls of the past year. In 2003, companies
that promote cognitive learning used lead paint, children's clothing burned
faster than newspaper, nightlights exploded, and crib mobiles leaked battery
acid on infants. These were just a few examples of the 66 children's products
that were recalled in 2003. Additionally, the report found that children's
product recalls dropped dramatically last year. Since 1999, recalls of
children's products have averaged 50% of total recalls; this year children's
products recalls represented only 30% of the 214 recalls.
We were discouraged to see shortcuts being taken when it comes to our
children's safety," stated Nancy Cowles, executive director of KID. "The CPSC's
recent cost benefit analysis of recalls seems to be extremely unbeneficial
to children, leaving products that are dangerous on the market with warnings
instead of recalls, or in some cases no warnings at all." See our list of five
"What Were They Thinking?" products or
download the report.
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2004 January Although the
Graco Travel Lite portable swing is advertised as "a cozy and fun place for
your little one to catch some zzz's or enjoy the soothing swing motion,"
Chicago's NBC Target 5 reported that 86% of the Travel Lite reviews on
Amazon.com were negative. The dangers of the swing were brought to Target 5's
attention by a father whose son fell forward in the swing, almost suffocating.
Please report any incidents to CPSC
and Graco.
"Once your child can start to sit up and lean forward they will tip forward and
fall out and hit the ground!"
"The handle bar is dangerous — I had to stop my 2-1/2 year old daughter
from accidentally slamming him in the face with it — it does not have a
catch to prevent the child from being injured."
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