For more on the Consumer Product Safety Commission travel issues that Brian blogged about here, an editorial in today's Times, Playing Games With Toy Safety rejects calls for the resignation of Nancy Nord, acting chair of the CPSC, seemingly because the Times fears that "another vacancy might mean that even less would get done." The Times opines:
Ms. Nord’s poor performance has taken on a more troubling cast with the disclosure that she has been traveling on the industry’s dime. As The Washington Post reported last week, she and her predecessor, Hal Stratton, accepted “gift travel” from those with business before the commission. It is hard to believe the agency’s lax approach was not affected by trips to places like China, Spain and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Working parents of young kids are losing enough sleep as it is. The last thing they need is to have to stay up all night trying to figure out which of their kids’ toys have been—or should be—recalled.
Two key reforms must take place to stem the tide of dangerous toys. One is stricter federal regulation, and the other, an organic shift in the very way that toy companies do business. Multibillion dollar toy retailers are perfectly positioned to demand stricter safety standards from their suppliers. Whether or not they do so is purely a question of priorities—cheap-at-any-cost supply vs. child safety?
This Christmas—and until this appalling tolerance for toxic toys on the shelves passes—we’ll skip the toy store and give the kids in our lives savings bonds. They may or may not be worth anything in a few years, but at least we can be reasonably sure the bonds won’t poison them. Learn more at www.toxicplayroom.org.
Posted by: Toxic Playroom | Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 10:45 AM