Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Consumer product safety Commission (CPSC) that there's really no need to enhance the safety monitoring of consumer products in the United States. Under orders from the White House, Nord insisted that the CPSC didn't need any increase in funding, and that businesses should essentially remain unregulated. Nancy Nord, who is now widely regarded as a pro-business Bush puppet, jetted around the world on trips paid for by some of the very same wealthy corporations who don't want consumer product safety regulations. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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 The Consumer product safety Commission seems to be striving for new benchmarks for ineffectiveness and then congratulating itself on reaching them. In 2003, aftet a four-year-old child in Oregon wound up in the intensive care unit with severe poisoning from swallowing a vending machine-dispensed toy necklace made of lead, the CPSC orchestrated "voluntary" recalls of over a million similar items.8 It then relied on importers to carry out their own testing of products in order to determine what constitutes a safe threshold of lead in an easily swallowed toy. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Four consumer advocacy groups (and environmental groups) are now filing a petition with the EPA and Consumer product safety Commission (CPSC), calling for the agency to start testing air freshener products for this toxic chemical. The four groups include the Sierra Club, Alliance for Healthy Homes and the National Center for Healthy Housing.
All this brings to mind an important question: Why hasn't some government agency taken steps to test these toxic chemicals in air freshener products before? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Nancy Nord, who is now widely regarded as a pro-business Bush puppet, jetted around the world on trips paid for by some of the very same wealthy corporations who don't want consumer product safety regulations.
Not surprisingly, virtually everyone following this issue is outraged at both Nancy Nord and the Bush Administration for apparently having no concern whatsoever for the safety of U.S. consumers. But why should this surprise us? The FDA openly approves dangerous pharmaceuticals that even the agency's own top scientists admit are killing at least a hundred thousand Americans each year. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 On pages 106-107 it states: "The purpose of the Foundation is to advance the mission of the Food and Drug Administration to modernize medical, veterinary, food, food ingredient, and cosmetic product development, accelerate innovation, and enhance product safety.... |
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
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| Consumer product safety Commission finally banned them, but only after many people (including babies) had ingested the toxic substance from exposure to paint chips or dust. Mercury, also very toxic, was regularly added to preserve many latex paints until 1990, when the EPA banned its use in indoor paints.62 A single breath of mercury fumes can poison the body and trigger a wide range of symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Now that lead and mercury have been banned from their ingredients, indoor paints are completely safe again, right? Well, not exactly. |
Stacy Malkan
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 The toxic chemicals we use are safe, and if the public doesn't believe it, we just need to do a better job of educating them about the "context of product safety" — i.e., the low levels of toxins in this one product are safe if used as directed, according to the incomplete information available in our risk assessments or supplier statements.
Yet there was also fresh air in that basement room: George Kimbrell arguing for the precautionary principle, Harold Zeliger encouraging proactive attention to the scientific literature. |
| That to me was the biggest irony: that this industry that is purportedly self regulating, that pushed 30 years ago to have their own safety panel outside of FDA, was not even following the advice of that panel when it comes to product safety," Jane said.
For example, Destin Diaper Rash Ointment, Creamy, Fresh Scent contained sodium borate, an ingredient that "should not be used on infant skin or injured skin." Klear Action Acne Treatment System contained ceteareth-20, an ingredient that "should not be used on damaged skin. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The Consumer product safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over 700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint (over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals.
But here's the interesting part in all this: Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. |
Stacy Malkan
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| In the 1970s, for example, CTFA "found itself in a decade-long struggle to convince regulatory agencies and consumer groups that the industry's commitment to product safety and self-regulation precluded the need to introduce new legislation," according to the association's website.5
A major threat came in 1973 when US Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-Missouri) proposed sweeping changes to federal oversight of the cosmetics industry. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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| Arsenic contamination of children's playgrounds became sufficiently high profile that even the slow-moving Consumer product safety Commission was finally compelled to take up the issue. It had not yet reached a decision on the matter when in 2003 the EPA, under increasing pressure, announced an industry "accord" to halt the availability of arsenic-treated wood for most consumer uses. This allowed the EPA to sidestep any formal regulation; in response the CPSC delayed any rule making it might have been considering in the matter. |
| The default regulatory body for household hazards— and default is the operative word—is called the Consumer product safety Commission (CPSC).
The CPSC, which has taken no action whatsoever on nitroethane, at least mandated protective packaging for acetonitrile in 1990 (two years after the initial deaths were publicized). |
Stacy Malkan
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| Moderator David Steinberg found the whole question about product safety very strange. "How many people put unsafe products on the market? How many people buy them?" Steinberg lectured the room about labeling products "parabens free" — "Our industry advertises that our products are not safe! We have to stop self-destructing!" The next topic — the "whitening trend in Asia" — highlighted the differences in the room. The FDA was threatening to ban hydroquinone, the highly toxic ingredient in skin lightening creams. What should the industry do? |
Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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 We assume a company as established and esteemed as Mattel would have a superior method for testing products for safety (and, by the same token, that the Consumer product safety Commission would be an added shield). What these recalls do is diminish our confidence in consumer products and the people who are supposed to protect us from injurious goods ever reaching our local stores. Congress is now investigating the recalls, but again, this only goes to show another example of treating a problem rather than preventing it. It's stepping in after the fact. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 The titles of industry studies and reports are often carefully crafted to proclaim product safety, even if the contents show otherwise.)
These tactics are catalogued here in the hope that it will preempt their use. Or at least it can help people sort through the spin and demand real answers to urgent questions.
Taking responsibility
After finding out about GMOs, politicians, regulators, reporters, food companies, farmers, chefs, school administrators, and even consumers usually figure that someone else is taking the responsibility. This is the main reason why we still face this travesty. |
Mark Schapiro
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 The Toy Industry of America, along with the American Chemistry Council, the California Chamber of Commerce, and local toy stores sued the city to try and block its implementation on the grounds that, on such matters, city law is preempted by the federal consumer product safety Commission.47
The case was pending as the law took effect in January 2007— when residents of San Francisco became the only Americans in the country who could shop with some level of certainty that the toys purchased for their children would contain no phthalates. |
Stacy Malkan
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| Adhere to a product safety policy.
European Trendsetters
In the final presentation of the morning, on "Emerging Global Regulatory Trends," Ken Rivlin from the Allen and Overy law firm explained that although the US used to be a worldwide leader in environmental policy, the EU is now at the forefront of environmental policy-making. Europe doesn't look at cost/benefit analysis but instead uses the "do no harm" precautionary principle: "If it's going to cause a problem, don't do it. |
David Steinman
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 In one study of VOCs, the Consumer product safety Commission found that while outdoor air at sampled sites contained less than ten of these airborne chemical toxins, indoor air at those same locations contained an average of 150 different VOCs.36
Many such VOCs are the same petrochemicals implicated in global warming. VOCs evaporate easily into the air when products containing them are used. Most solvents are classified as VOCs.
VOCs have been making the news lately via a fresh round of studies that say these chemical compounds all too easily harm humans. |
| Addressing climate change makes business sense," said Wayne Balta, vice president for Corporate Environmental Affairs and product safety. "We have saved more than one hundred million dollars since 1998 by conserving energy. When you consider the significant environmental benefits also achieved, cutting emissions is a win-win proposition."28
Interface Inc., the world's largest commercial flooring manufacturer, has been striving to be a fully sustainable enterprise and has saved $262 million since 1994 by consuming less raw material and energy, managing waste, and conserving water. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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| Consumer product safety Commission announces investigation . . .
11 May. "Vinyl Chloride Parley Told of Dangers to Workers"
1 June. "New Cancer Cases Widen Fears on Vinyl Chloride"
14 June. "New Cases Linked to Chemical"
26 June. "Vinyl Chloride Exposure Limit is Opposed by Plastics Industry"
2 October "Vinyl Chloride Rules Seek to Guard Workers' Health"
6 October. "Carcinogens: Unchecked, They Threaten an Epidemic"37 benzene and leukemia revisited
Because vinyl chloride was relatively cheap and easy to manufacture, it turned out that it had many applications beyond polymet chemistry. |
David Steinman
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| Some experts, and governmental agencies such as the Consumer product safety Commission, say that the concern over these chemicals is overblown and that we should be confident that they are safe.16
No one is telling you to join the Paranoid Society for Chemical Phobias and to search under your mattress for every stinking pinko chemical commie phthalate and barbaric bisphenol-A terrorist; you will drive yourself cracked nuts doing so. But to say widespread human exposure to estrogenic chemicals like phthalates isn't worrisome and we should all go back to la-la land isn't good, either. |
| Consumer product safety Commission (CSPC) "reported the presence of 1,4-dioxane, even as a trace contaminant, is cause for concern."29
The government's top consumer watchdog group, CSPC is not exactly the most chemical-phobic regulatory commission in the federal government, folks, but if they say this, it means they are reminding industry to clean up its act. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 Consumer product safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a warning to consumers to inform them of the dangers of inhaling mercury vapors. Certain ethnic and religious customs involve using a product called azogue, which in reality is metallic mercury. This product is sold in herb shops, or botanicas. Azogue is sprinkled throughout the home for religious purposes. The CPSC suggests immediate removal of the mercury if it has been sprinkled in the home, but removal must be done in the proper way to avoid making the danger worse. |
Mike Adams
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 Whether you approach this from a nutritional point of view, a product safety point of view, or a system that supports the ethical treatment of animals, the choice is clear: choose eggs from free-range chickens grown without the use of antibiotics or hormones. And that doesn't mean just choosing brown eggs, by the way: you have to read the egg cartons carefully and make sure you're getting organic or free-range eggs. Brown eggs are not automatically healthier than white eggs. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton
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 Symptoms reported to the Consumer product safety Commission (CPSC) from being exposed to synthetic carpets include burning eyes, memory problems, chills and fevers, sore throats, chest tightness, cough, numbness, depression, and difficulty concentrating. The EPA considers synthetic carpet to be a major contributor of volatile organic compounds to indoor air pollution and has safety information available for consumers. |
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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 The Legislation of Product Safety: Consumer Health and Product Hazards, 1974.
• The Politics of Cancer, 1978. Hazardous Waste in America, 1982.
• Cancer in Britain: The Politics of Prevention, 1983.
• The Safe Shopper's Bible, 1995.
The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, 1998.
• The Politics of Cancer, Revisited, 1998.
Unreasonable Risk. How to Avoid Cancer from Cosmetics and Other Personal Care Products: The Neways Story, 2005.
Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War, 2005.
About the Author
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., D. Path., D.T. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 Consumer product safety Commission suggests that you press the reset button, call emergency services (911 or your local fire department), and immediately move to fresh air (either outdoors or near an open door or window). If you learn that fuel-burning appliances were the most likely cause of the poisoning, have a serviceperson check them for malfunction before turning them back on. Refer to the instructions on your CO alarm for more specific information about what to do if your alarm goes off. |
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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| There is, instead, a fundamental conflict of interest inherent in present standard modes of generation and interpretation of product safety and related data by scientists employed directly or indirectly by the same industry which manufactures the particular product. |
| He has published some 270 peer reviewed scientific articles, and authored or co-authored twelve books: the 1971 Mutagenicity of Pesticides: the 1971 Drugs of Abuse: Genetic and Other Chronic Non-Psychiatric Hazards: the 1974 The Legislation of Product Safety: Consumer Health and Product Hazards: the prize-winning 1978 The Politics of Cancer: the 1982 Hazardous Wastes in America: the 1983 Cancer in Britain: The Politics of Prevention: the 1995 Safe Shopper's Bible: the 1998 Breast Cancer Prevention Program: the 1998 The Politics of Cancer Revisited: the 2001 Got (Genetically Engineered) Milk! |
Mark Blumenthal
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 CHSI also reviewed the FDA's AER database but concluded that due to insufficient and inconsistent clinical data, these reports were not useful for assessing product safety. (The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association of dietary supplement manufacturers and suppliers, commissioned the review.)
Some experts have suggested that the relative safety and potential benefits of ephedra-containing dietary supplements should be viewed within the broader public health context of the prevalence of obesity in America. In December 2001, the U.S. |
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