[Dialogue] Bush Nominee for Product Safety Agency Was Top Lobbyist for Industry Group That Pressed to Weaken Key Safeguards

Wed May 9 16:34:55 EDT 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 8, 2007
11:40 AM

CONTACT: Public Citizen
Call (202) 588-7742, (202) 588-7703 or 
email: rpleatman at citizen.org. 

Bush Nominee for Product Safety Agency Was Top Lobbyist for Industry Group
That Pressed to Weaken Key Safeguards
More Than 80 Percent of Safety Fines Were Imposed Under Rules CPSC Weakened
With Support of Baroody's Association; His Members, Partners Paid More Than
Half 

WASHINGTON - May 8 - Michael Baroody, President Bush's nominee to chair the
nation's consumer safety watchdog agency, was the top lobbyist for the
country's most powerful industry trade association when the group supported
weakening guidelines for reporting information about dangerous products.

According to a report released today by Public Citizen, the requirements
that the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and its allies sought
to weaken had been responsible for more than 80 percent of the fines issued
by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) over the past decade. NAM's
members and its coalition partners were responsible for paying more than
half of those fines. The report's findings underscore the inappropriateness
of Bush's choice of Baroody, a career lobbyist for the manufacturing
industry, to chair the agency that is charged with protecting consumers from
unsafe products.

The CPSC is tasked with protecting the public - and especially children -
from serious injury or death and monitors more than 15,000 types of consumer
products. Reports about product hazards are mandated by the Consumer Product
Safety Act, one of the key laws governing the CPSC's role in protecting
consumer safety.   With Baroody serving as its executive director for
lobbying efforts, NAM supported a move to weaken agency protocols that
dictate when companies - including NAM members - must immediately report
information about potentially hazardous product defects. The changes NAM
successfully pressed for could affect the agency's ability to issue timely
decisions to recall dangerous products.

"As head of the CPSC, Baroody would be in charge of administering the
weakened disclosure guidance his industry association sought, presenting a
serious and unavoidable conflict of interest," said Public Citizen President
Joan Claybrook. "Under his authority, consumer and public safety would be at
risk, while the companies he represented for years would save millions in
future fines."

In 2006, despite a long history of manufacturer defiance and cover-ups of
reporting violations, the CPSC proposed watering down the Substantial
Product Hazard reporting guidelines. Its proposal added additional criteria
to the test for determining if a product is both defective and potentially
dangerous, and allowed companies new wiggle room in deciding whether to
report unsafe products to the CPSC. The new guidelines will likely benefit
manufacturers and reduce public notice of safety risks.

Public Citizen's analysis shows that weakening the rules had enormous
financial benefits for NAM and its manufacturer members at the expense of
consumer safety. Alleged violations of reporting guidelines were responsible
for about $32.9 million of $39.6 million in civil fines collected by the
CPSC since 1997. NAM members and affiliates accounted for more than half of
those payments, totaling $18 million. Five of those companies alone paid a
combined $10 million for allegedly violating reporting guidelines.

The following companies - all members of NAM or coalition partners - were
some of the most egregious violators of the reporting guidance, resulting in
record fines and injury and death to consumers, particularly small children:

*	Graco Children's Products Inc., which manufactures cribs, strollers
and other items, paid a record $4 million penalty in 2005, settling CPSC's
charges that it failed to report information about possible defects in more
than 12 million of its products from 1991 to 2002. Six babies died from
strangulation or falls in the company's swings. Others suffered skull
fractures, concussions, lacerations or broken bones from falls after handles
failed in several models of its carriers and car seats.

*	Fisher-Price Inc. has been cited twice by the CPSC since 2001 and
paid fines totaling more than $2 million for unreported problems in the toy
manufacturer's Little People Animal Sounds Farm, which had pieces
susceptible to coming loose that could be inhaled by children if they put it
in their mouths. Another toy, the company's Power Wheels mini-cars, was
prone to burning children when the cars overheated or short-circuited. The
company did not report more than 100 fires linked to the toys, including
fires that caused damage to 22 houses and garages. Mini-cars also did not
always stop appropriately, resulting in crashes and injuries.

*	Dorel U.S.A Inc. was assessed about $1.9 million in penalties by the
CPSC since 1998, mostly for allegedly withholding information about defects
in its products that caused numerous serious injuries and, in the case of
its cribs, killed two children.  

*	General Electric Inc. paid $1 million in penalties in 2002 for
failing to report that several models of its dishwashers were prone to
overheating and catching fire. The CPSC charged GE with knowing about more
than 100 incidents involving the dishwashers, including nearly 50 fires,
between 1992 and 1998. GE's vice chairman is on NAM's board of directors.

In light of the magnitude of these companies' offenses, a coalition of
consumer safety groups and experts opposed the reporting guidance changes.
Consumers Union, U.S. PIRG, the Consumer Federation of America and Kids in
Danger raised concerns in June 2006 that the proposal NAM lobbied for would
cloud the interpretation of the law rather than provide clarity and would
violate the basic tenet of the existing guidelines, which was "report if in
doubt."

Catherine Downs, the former deputy director for recalls in the CPSC's Office
of Compliance, argued that the changes could "only weaken the protection
that is offered to the consumer." Drawing on her experience with the CPSC,
she criticized the proposed revisions as "not only unnecessary but
potentially dangerous," and warned the CPSC not to adopt them. Under
Baroody, NAM was vocal in its support of the weakened rules. The CPSC
approved the changes in July 2006.

"While Baroody was at its helm, NAM had a record of unrelenting hostility to
the safety of consumers, including small children," said Laura MacCleery,
director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "Baroody should not be
confirmed to lead a safety agency that has such a vital role in protecting
American families."

To read the report, click here. To learn more about Michael Baroody, click
here.

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