Chamber fights consumer safety deal

Business groups are pushing back on an agreement by House and Senate negotiators on legislation to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it would make House and Senate consideration of the bill this week a “key vote,” meaning lawmakers will be scored. It argued a ban on plastic-softening chemicals commonly used in children’s toys was not based on science, and that the bill would lead to increased litigation.

{mosads}“The conference report contains language that inappropriately limits the authority of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC),” wrote Bruce Josten, a top lobbyist for the Chamber.

“The CPSC has an important function and should receive vigorous support from the Congress.

However, increasing litigation and rejecting sound sciences is not the way in which to show that support,” Josten wrote in a letter to both the House and Senate.

Separately, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) also circulated a strongly worded letter to House and Senate members urging them to vote against the conference report.

“We are deeply concerned enactment of this conference report will undermine uniformity, lead to the uneven enforcement of consumer product safety laws and encourage the filing of specious claims,” reads the letter. “None of this serves the interests of the agency, the regulated community or consumers. Consequently, NAW opposes the conference report and urges the House to reject it.”

The House could vote as early as Wednesday on the agreement, and insiders who worked on the legislation believe that the Senate will vote by Friday.

Democrats at one time had hoped to have the bill approved by Christmas 2007, but it was repeatedly held up by heated debates between the chemical industry and consumer advocates over issues such as banning the plastic-softening chemicals known as phthalates, creating a consumer-friendly online database and ensuring a national toy safety standard.

{mospagebreak}The final sticking point was a ban on phthalates offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The conference report will effectively ban three types of the chemicals now commonly found in children’s toys. Three other types will be banned temporarily until a safety review is conducted.

The White House opposes several provisions in the bill, including the phthalates ban, but has not decided whether it would veto the bill, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. “We have some concerns that we’ve expressed through our [statements of administration policy], and while some of the issues may have been addressed we have not reached a conclusion yet,” Perino wrote in an e-mail.

Consumer advocates were thrilled by the conference agreement.

{mosads}Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy at the Breast Cancer Fund, a group that lobbied hard in favor of the amendment, described the outcome as a victory for families and a blow to the chemical industry. Her organization had argued the plastic-softening chemicals could cause a variety of health problems, particularly for children and pregnant women.

The compromise permanently bans the sale of children’s toys that contain more than 0.1 percent of any of three different kinds of phthalates. That threshold essentially prevents the chemicals from being used, according to sources on both sides of the issue.

An interim ban preventing the use of three other phthalates in children’s products includes the widely used DINP. This provision was particularly disappointing to Exxon and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), as DINP previously had been found to be safe.

The ban will be lifted if the CPSC’s Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP), upon conducting a review, upholds its previous finding that DINP and the two other chemicals are safe. The ACC said it was confident the review will lead to the ban being lifted.

“While we are disappointed that Congress has placed interim restrictions on the use of DINP in children’s mouthing toys, we are pleased that the final safety determination will be left to the scientists at the CPSC,” said Susan Katellus, an Exxon lobbyist. “Decisions regarding product safety should be made by expert scientists at the appropriate federal agencies.”

The bill also would provide funds for an online database to the CPSC that would enable consumers to access up-to-date product safety information.

Lead standards will be evaluated and enacted by the CPSC, and will apply to products marketed to minors 12 and younger.

Employees who come forward with information that their employers have violated any of the new safety standards are also protected under a strongly worded whistleblower provision, which many industry groups thought was unnecessary.

The final bill also gives the CPSC the power to seize assets if companies are found to be criminally negligent in complying with health standards.